


Thread and thrum

by MoltenButterfly



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, Arc Reactor, Avengers Tower, Awkward Peter Parker, BAMF Peter Parker, Bad Puns, Comic Book Science, Crack, Field Trip, Gen, Genius Peter Parker, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, Interns & Internships, Peter Feels, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Saves The Day, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Randomly changing style, Secret Identity, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2019-09-05 02:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 36,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16801711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoltenButterfly/pseuds/MoltenButterfly
Summary: AKA That Field Trip When...Peter still has a secret identity, so no, he is not afraid the Avengers will embarrass him. He still has a vague sense of foreboding though, because of Parker Luck reasons. He feels justified when all hell breaks loose.And then everything else that follows.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm new to this so a) be nice and b) feel free to steal any ideas if you can do them better. Also I feel like I should say that English is not my native language. Also not beta-ed. I probably shouldn't have done that.

After six months of wait and preparations, the Decathlon Team of Midtown High was finally ready to take its field trip to Avengers Tower, and the Tower readily awaited them.

And Peter Parker was running late. He had spent the previous night swinging through New York as Spider-man saving kittens from evil geniuses or whatever it was vigilantes were supposed to do these days, fell into his bed at 3 am and only woke up at 8 am the next morning because aunt May asked him if he was going to be late. At first he blinked her owlishly, not understanding what he could possibly be late for on a Saturday then he remembered The Field Trip.

He had equally anticipated and dreaded the event. On one, hand, science. Duh. On the other, it was the _Avengers_ Tower, the tower of a group of superheroes who had worked with Spidey on multiple occasions, _but didn't know his identity_ . And, sure, that in itself didn't spell disaster right away. But when you added _Parker Luck_ to the mix…

Peter ran through all that in his mind while skidding to a halt in front of the main entrance of the Tower, and shuffling into the rotating doors with six special-ops-gear wearing buff guys.

Just his luck, every single member of his group had arrived already. And, of course, Flash greeted him with a muttered ’Penis’ when he shuffled to the back of the group. Their guide, a young and tall woman in black and purple, didn't seem to notice and continued her well practiced speech about the history of SI in her bored tone, which, ok, maybe Peter knew by heart because he _might_ have been a bit of a fanboy of Stark Industries. Just a teeny bit. Also he didn't miss getting handed his visitor’s badge which was great since it meant he wouldn't get kicked out by angry security people. (That had never happened to him. Nope. He never-ever had tried to snuck in before to see the electric bike prototypes.)

The main reason the Tower was chosen as their destination (at least on paper) was because a lot of the R&D of SI happened here. (Not the Avengers. Nope.) Which meant they would spend the majority of the day looking at labs and prototypes and they would not meet the Avengers. Which, probably Peter was the only person who was happy about. Including their tour guide, if some of her comments about Thor’s abs were anything to go by.

But, their trip began at the Arc Reactor that powered the whole building. It was situated in the basement, and it supplied the entire tower with energy, making it the only off-the-grid building of its size and energy consumption in the world, and, ok, maybe Peter was fanboying again, just a bit. MJ was scribbling something in her sketchbook, so Peter suspected he might have even drooled a bit. Ned just gave Peter the ’please don’t monologue out loud about the marvels of Stark Industries, please’ look. Peter was proud to say that he didn't. Also he was going to ask for an Arc Reactor Lego set for his birthday, and Ned was going to want to build it with him, no matter what he said right now.

The Reactor was a shiny blue torus (or donut shape, fine, no showing off) of about 2 meters of height, and an outer diameter of 6 meters. (And it powered the whole building!) And, okay, moving on, not getting left behind is a good idea, Peter thought to himself, unless you want to find yourself bitten by radioactive spiders. Not that he should really complain about that, come to think of it, getting superpowers and all.

Their next stop was, gasp, the electric bike prototypes on the 5th floor. The bikes could now fly. (They definitely hadn't been able to when Peter _hadn't_ snuck in at the tender age of 8. Hadn't _tried_ to. Whatever.)

A rumble went through the building, but Peter didn't look up from where he was plastered to the window separating him from the bike, because _hoverbike_. But when a second, larger rumble ran through the tower, then the whole thing shook for a couple of minutes, and some large bangs sounded, then everything went dark. Well, everything electricity-powered. Some sunlight still streamed in from the end of the corridor where large glass windows were situated.

Now, Peter knew the building better than the back of his hand, because the schematics for it were far more interesting than the back of his hand, so he didn't need much time to build a mental model of what could have happened. (Also he might have come up with several similar plans to pass time because the Arc Reactor was shiny and he wanted one, but he would never have acted on any of them, because he was raised better.) So, yeah. Someone stole the Arc Reactor. And they cut off the emergency power supply, which was a connection to the grid just-in-case, because that’s how you do it properly. So, if Peter’s theory was correct, no power, that means no super-intelligent AI who took care of everything. And, since the reactor used to be in the basement, nothing but the bare skeletons of the lower three floors, just enough to hold the rest of the building, not enough for them to leave the building, because that’s the size of explosions you would need to get the reactor out of its place. Carefully controlled explosions of the exact size, if you didn't want to damage the reactor. Ok, so Peter did the math. Out of idle curiosity.

Peter peeled himself off the window as this ran through his mind, and rushed to the closest window to the outside world (at the end of the corridor). He could see thick smoke rising from the bottom of the tower and black armor clad men hauling the reactor onto a really big harness that was surrounded by three super fancy planes. So, theory confirmed, then.

Bad news was, if he remembered the schematics correctly, (which he did,) they had about 30 minutes to get out under the current circumstances, until the building collapsed under its own weight, and it would take the authorities approximately two hours to secure the location, and get everyone out safely. Also the Avengers probably weren't home, or they would have done something by now.

Peter tried to think of the weakest points. That would be floor 4, where the bare steel beams and some steaming chunks of concrete remained of the first three floors, bearing the weight of the whole building. Peter thought very hard about a solution, to try and distract his mind, which was set on calculating the number of casualties. There was only one he could do right here and now without needing special equipment and an abundance of time. He did need a biochem lab though. Lucky for him (and everyone else in the building), he did remember from the plans that there was one on the seventh floor.

The elevator was out, so that left the stairs. He hurried to the heavy steel doors separating him from the emergency staircase, while Flash seemed to take on the position of leader, since their professor along with their tour guide and a couple of students (including Ned and MJ, don’t think about it, Peter) were in a state of shock/panic/unconscious because of the quakes. Apparently Peter only stayed standing because of his Spidey senses and the three-point contact he had with the window. Peter ignored them, and nobody noticed he was missing. Flash was assigning the calm and uninjured students to the panicked and hurt ones. Peter begrudgingly had to admit that Flash was a natural leader.

So, stairs. Peter tore the door open and ran to the seventh floor. The whole floor was plunged into darkness. It didn't take long for him to find the lab he was looking for. To avoid detection, he stuck to the ceiling above the heads of the scientists and engineers who tried to find their ways using their phones as flashlights, and thanked the gods that Jarvis was offline as well. The lab he picked was empty, but the doors had opened when the power was cut. Once he made sure that there was nobody else around, and silently closed the door behind him, he dropped to the floor and took out his phone as well, and shone it on the neatly labeled row of chemicals to pick out the ones he needed. If there was one thing he could do under all circumstances, it was his web fluid. the stuff was fortunately strong enough to hold buildings, the tensile strength of the stuff was insane.

The main issue though: it dissolved in half an hour. Good news was, Peter knew why it did that. Oxygen corroded it. If he wanted to use it to hold the building for longer than that, he needed something to seal it off from air. Like hairspray, he thought. Only more airtight. But, that was something he could whip up.

Now he only needed something to distribute the stuff. Like an aero solvent. He knew the smartest people of their generation were just outside the door of the lab he was in. He also knew he couldn't ask for their help, because a) they wouldn't listen to him and they would tell him to stay put and stay safe; or b) they would solve the problem and then his brain would tell him how many people he had failed to save today because he didn't get suspicious when six mercenary looking people walked into the building, with guns, he remembered now, right in front of him.

So instead, he spent another 8 or so minutes in the lab coming up with a decent solution and building it. When he shut off his phone’s flashlight and climbed onto the ceiling again to leave the lab, he was faced with an empty corridor. He suspected the researchers left to come up with a solution together.

Peter headed down to the fourth floor to fix what he could. Down there, the floor was missing large chunks and he could see a smoking crater below the building through them. He very carefully leaned over the edge of the first, and, his upper body dangling about eight meters in the air, aimed his web shooter to secure the joints holding the with off the tower. He repeated the action with the canister holding the stuff to seal it off from air. (He should probably name that.) He did the same wherever he could. Once he felt like he gained enough time for all of them, (the building would now hold up for 4 hours, 21 minutes, authorities were bound to have rescued everybody by then), he sat back on his heels and tried to not think about the number of people that died.

He needed a new problem. Maybe he could get everybody out? Without giving away that he was Spider-man. That last part was definitely important. That meant he couldn't use his web fluid in any visible way. Maybe he could use some of the dangling chunks of metal to build something… stairs? … where the first three floors (with all those people, _don’t think about it_ ) used to be. His mind started building Rube-Goldberg machines onto the schematics of the building, timing each part of it buy the thickness of the webs he used to fix them in place. If he calculated it carefully, they would dissolve like clockwork, releasing the momentum needed to move other parts of the machine. Ok, so maybe it was a bit outlandish. But it could be done. Peter got to work.

* * *

About half an hour later Peter was watching the fruits of his labor with a grin. He was checking the timer on his phone and listening for the telltale creaks and groans as larger and larger pieces of concrete moved one another and slowly piled at the bottom of the building, where Peter sat at the edge of a smaller hole, his feet dangling.

This is where Iron Man found him, when he returned with the rest of the Avengers to find the ruins of their home. While the rest of the team was evacuating everyone else from the building one quinjetful at a time, Iron Man had searched for additional life signs, and that is how he found Peter.

“Sorry about your Tower. And the Rube-Goldberg thing. And loosing the visitor’s badge.” He stammered out embarrassed when he noticed the metal armor hovering just below him. “And the Tower. Did I already say that? I didn't mean to snoop in the labs. Well, I did. but only to fix things. The tower. For a bit, at least. And, I didn't want to think about the…” And there it was. He let himself think about it.

“…at least 129 plus whoever was in the lobby.” He whispered to himself. “Definitely dead. Plus whoever is injured. Which could have happened anywhere else in the building.”

Iron Man didn't say a word, but he took a seat on the opposite edge of the whole, his feet dangling as well. His faceplate slid up, and Peter saw the same guilt in his as eyes that he felt.

“127.” he finally spoke. “Five of those supposed to be there were on a smoke break, two were up visiting on higher floors. Three dead on higher floors. Two visitors in the lobby. I know you won’t believe me, but it wasn't your fault.”

“ I saw them come in. I didn't warn anyone. I could have stopped it if I did.” Peter said kicking his feet. And wasn't it surreal, The Iron Man, Tony Stark, trying to comfort some kid who wrecked his tower so that he wouldn't have to face his own guilt?

“Kid, you did more than anybody else in the building. I saw those webs. By the way, don’t think you can get away with that, your secret is out in the open now.” Peter’s blood froze. “You’re Sidey’s tech guy.” Peter let out the air he was holding. “Brilliant use of them. Never seen Spidey nearly as creative.”

“Maybe he doesn't need to be.” Peter shrugged.

They sat there in silence after that until the rest of the Avengers announced on Mr. Stark’s com that they had evacuated everybody on the quinjet. Then Mr Stark, after asking for Peter’s permission, flew him to where everybody else previously in the building was gathered. MJ and Ned seemed to be doing fine. Flash Thompson was talking to Ms Potts. Or rather, she was talking to him, offering him an internship and praising his leadership skills. Mr Stark dragged Peter over to them.

“Pepper, if you can have that one, I wanna keep him.” and he pointed at Peter. Ms Potts looked at them. “Tony, we have already talked about this. You can’t just keep every genius child that wanders into your labs and messes around.” (Okay, so maybe Peter did speak in that one time. And maybe he Tony Stark wanted to hire him once he fixed that one gadget Peter was sure was supposed to fly but didn't, but Ms. Potts forbade him.)

“But whyyy? And why can you have one then? I want one too. Plus mine is better. He stopped the building from collapsing before we got here.” The long suffering sigh that followed was not a no. Mr. Stark demanded a high-five from Peter. Flash looked far less pleased than two minutes ago.

* * *

It was only on the next Monday, the first day of Peter’s (and Flash’s) shiny new internship that it dawned on him that he would have to work with Mr. Stark now, and keep his secret, and that a decided lack of asking Peter was involved before he got hired.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is caffeine deprived and makes weird decisions. Then he is not, and that doesn't help as much as you would think.

_7 years ago_

It started off as a bad day. What it evolved to, Tony Stark was not sure he had a word to describe. He was out of coffee, all the coffee shops that he called told him they didn't deliver and that he should get an intern if he wanted any, and someone had misplaced his project during the move to the freshly completed Stark Tower a week ago. His project was super secret, because it was a new type of propulsion system for his suit, and he knew better than to share any new tech that was part of his suits with anyone.

When asked, JARVIS told him, that the box containing his plans as well as half finished prototype was down in R&D. Just like that. His precious tech was just lying around in Research and Development at the mercy of dozens of overeager scientists and engineers that Tony had hired precisely for their overeager nature.

So Tony, still very low on coffee, set out to rescue his wayward tech from the claws of his employees. Which turned out not to be a good idea, because he was halfway into the lab JARVIS pointed him to when it registered that JARVIS had also mentioned an intruder in said lab. And it only registered then because he caught sight of the intruder.

He was tiny, sitting on one of the rotating chairs in the lab, feet dangling above the floor. He was leaning over something so the only thing Tony could see of his head was a mop of brown hair. He wore an Iron Man T-shirt, which Tony remembered Pepper forbidding all his employees from doing by putting it in the dress code when last year, on the 1st of April all of them, Pepper excluded, appeared in one. So the kid was probably not an employee. Good to know.

Oh yeah. Intruder. Definitely not an employee then. Which raised another question: why was now the thing that looked like it used to be parts of an unassembled electric bike hovering 50 centimeters above the workbench? Also, did that mean he couldn't send the kid for coffee?

At this point, Tony’s thoughts got interrupted by the kid who was giving the perfect impression of a deer caught in headlights, complete with big brown eyes.

"Hi, Mr Stark." said the kid sounding way too innocent to actually be innocent, but Tony couldn't figure out why. He decided to use the guilt to his advantage anyway.

"Coffee." He said. "I need. End of corridor, kitchen." He managed to put together some of the right words in almost the correct order. The kid blinked at him than jumped off the chair. He was short. Like really short. He gave Tony a questioning look but when he didn't get an answer, he went off to fetch the coffee. Five to ten minutes later he returned with a steaming cup which he placed on the table next to Tony. Tony took a long sip then he started to wake up.

What was the kid doing here again? Right, he must be an intern. Interns fetched coffee, like dogs fecthed balls, right? OK. He didn't remember hiring them so young, but whatever. The thing was flying and he had coffee. The kid was doing good work.

He took another sip of the hot beverage. The thing was flying. The thing was not his prototype, but it clearly used the same technology. He noticed his plans spread on the workbench.

"Why is the thing flying?" he asked. "And what _is_ the thing?" he added after a pause.

"How should I now? It’s your lab. Or your company’s." The kid shrugged. "And wasn't it _supposed_ to fly? I mean I saw the plans. I've seen drones and jet engines before, you know. I’m not _stupid_."

"You certainly aren't." Tony said with wide eyes. "Probably why I would have hired someone so young?" He mumbled to himself. "Come on, kid, we’re gonna go see my Arc Reactor now. The big one, not the one here in my chest."

The kid was in complete awe of the thing. It oddly stroked Tony’s ego that the kid not only gaped at the thing (he did that too) but he also asked actually smart questions about how it worked and he understood the answers. When Tony ascertained that everything was up and running, their next stop was his private labs. Now that Pepper was CEO, he was free to spend his days as he pleased, which was alone in his lab. Except today, because today he found a fun new intern he actually liked and on top of that the kid was adorable. He rambled more than Tony, and he loved science as much as Tony. And he understood what Tony was talking about, which was rare. Well, obviously Tony had to dumb it down, because the kid was, what? Ten? But still. Some of his engineers needed more dumbing down.

Working together, they managed to increase the efficiency of the new propulsion system that the kid built the prototype for by 13.5% by late afternoon. Which is when Pepper usually dropped by the lab to warn Tony to eat something even though she supposedly had more important things to do now.

"Tony, there is a child in your lab." was the first thing that she said this fine afternoon.

"I know, isn't he great?" was Tony’s cheerful reply.

To which Pepper facepalmed and said "Where did you even find a child?"

"I found him down in R&D. I think he is an intern? He fetched me coffee." Tony explained patiently. It all seemed very straightforward to him.

"There are so many things wrong with that. You can’t just drink anything some random person brings you! And how has JARVIS not informed you that Happy spent his day looking for an intruder in R&D?"

At this point JARVIS interjected an "I did, although it might have been before sir’s first coffee."

"And how was it not suspicious that he is like 8? And wearing an Iron Man T-shirt? No SI employee is allowed to do that!" she asked, exasperated.

"But Pepper, you don’t get it, he is really really smart. I thought I hired him because he was really really smart. And just so you know, I’m keeping him.” Tony declared in a firm tone.

"No, you’re not." she said flatly. "He probably has parents looking for him by now."

"No, I don’t." The kid interjected. There, problem solved. Now they could go back to building coffee delivering drones so that they would be able to use the kid’s time better later on.

"See, problem solved." he told Pepper.

"That’s not how it works! You can’t just kidnap a child just because he is smart and an orphan!" Pepper was starting to get really frustrated, and that was never a good sign. Which probably meant no intern for Tony today, but he wasn't ready to give up just yet. "That’s it, I’m calling Happy." she declared. OK, he was ready to give up now. They were ganging up on him, which usually meant he was about to do something really stupid.

While they waited for Happy, Tony pouted, Pepper fumed, and the kid tried very very hard to turn invisible without success. When Happy arrived, he took one look at the kid and is first reaction was:

"No badge, Tony. He needs to go." Tony was sure Pepper briefed him beforehand, so he didn't even try to fight it any more, he just pouted more fiercely.

Happy took the kid with him and Pepper saw to it that Tony was fed. Later, he was told that Happy took the kid home safely. And that he was not allowed to kidnap him again, even though no kidnapping happened at all, the kid wanted to go with Tony, and, OK, maybe that sounded a little creepy.

_Now_

They had been in a middle of search and rescue after a pretty strong series of earthquakes in Japan when they got the message to head back because the Tower was under attack. When they got back, they were surprised to find their home still standing, given how the lowest three floors looked, only to find out that it was thanks to some kid on a field trip.

Three hours later, Tony was still trying to figure out the layers of safety net placed to keep the building standing, all of it done with barely more than Spider-man’s web, although seemingly a much improved version.

Tony was also pleased to say that he had secured the kid as an intern, and Pepper put up much less of a fight than she had seven years ago. Probably because she hasn't figured it out yet that it was the same kid.

Not that the discovery wasn't a shocker for Tony. Since Pepper had forbidden him from keeping tabs on the kid back then, not to mention he hadn't even asked for his name, this time Peter (because that was his name) came completely out of nowhere. It only registered to Tony that they had met before when he stammered out that bit about the badge. As if that had been the real reason he had to go home, and not that Pepper didn't condone kidnapping minors. (Or adults for that matter.)

There was one major issue though. It seemed that Spider-man got to the kid first. While Peter was brilliant, and Tony was sure that SI would have profited greatly from him working for them all these years, Tony was more worried about what that meant for Peter’s safety. It didn't bode well that Peter was working for him without a secret identity, and that Tony could find out so easily about the connection. It looked like Peter’s safety was not a major concern for the vigilante.

Tony would have to have words with him. But, for now, he was satisfied with strong-arming Peter into an internship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a second chapter happened and now I kinda feel like there might be more coming. Feedback is appreciated and when I say that I mean I refresh my browser every ten minutes to see if the numbers had gone up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter defends that with great power, comes great responsibility.

Spider-man was clinging on by his fingertips to the van hurtling down the streets of New York. A guy with a blond beard was leaning out the window of the van and trying to dislodge him by shooting at him. In an attempt to evade a surprisingly accurate shot aimed at his head, Spidey jumped onto the top of the van, but this cost him his balance. He was now lying on his stomach, his hands making dents into the metal of the vehicle.

Said vehicle happened to be Stark Industries property and it was supposed to be delivering the newest versions of Stark Phones into the stores all around the city.

"You know, guys, I get it that the marketing was done really well, but maybe you shouldn't go this far just to be the first to have one. Release is only next week. You can camp out in front of the stores and wait it out." he rushed out, out of breath.

Instead of a response, the bearded guy started shooting at the roof of the van this time. It was only thanks to his spidey-sense that Peter didn't get hit.

"Okay, maybe time to go on the offensive?" he muttered to himself. He reached for the edge of the van, grabbed it, and swung himself at his attacker feet first. The guy lost balance and fell on his behind. Spidey quickly webbed the gun he was now loosely holding onto the floor along with the hand holding it, then securing his other hand behind him where it kept him upright.

Then the spider-themed vigilante climbed into the from of the truck, to ascertain whether the driver was one of the robbers as well of had been held at gunpoint to aid the criminal. He would have been met with a punch in the face if not for his senses. he grabbed the fist trying to hit him then pressed it against the back of the passenger seat and webbed it there. He secured his other hand to the steering wheel then asked:

"So not an SI employee then? Can’t say I blame you, those big corporations suck your soul, eh?"

"Fuck you, Spider-man!" the other criminal, also dressed in black retorted very creatively.

Spider-Man pressed the man's head down onto the steering wheel then stuck it there with his webs.

Then he realized the issue the new situation presented. The van was now heading straight through the red light towards a pedestrian crossing effectively without a driver. He did the first thing that came to mind and wrenched the guys foot off the gas pedal and quickly turned the car key. The vehicle was slowing down but not fast enough. Spidey couldn't possibly reach the brake, the driver was in the way.

He was saved from having to crash through the windshield and stop it by hand by two red hands with blue glow in the palms that came up to stop the momentum of the van.

Spidey jumped from the van to find himself face to face with Iron Man.

"Wow, nice timing! For a moment there I thought you didn't care about your own companies products getting stolen!" Peter gushed.

"I don't. We've got insurance." The hero replied in a metallic voice that didn't give away anything. "I’m here to talk to you."

"Uh, that's … uh, good?" Spidey mumbled, shuffling on his feet. "Well, you found me. What would you like to, uh, talk about?"

"Peter Parker.” Came the answer. Peter’s eyes went wide under the mask.

"Yes?" he asked in a squeaky voice.

"Leave him alone." Iron Man continued, mistaking Peter’s response for an encouragement to continue. "You need the tech, and the kid is brilliant, I get it. But he is just a kid, and unlike you, he doesn't hide behind a mask." The _like a coward_ part went unsaid, but hung in the air between then nevertheless. "When he helps you, you can clearly be tied back to him, and your enemies can find their way back to him and his family. You are putting them in danger."

"Okay, first of all, not _clearly_ tied to me. I don't even know how you found out about it. I don’t mention him, ever, and he doesn't mention me in a capacity out of the norm." He replied, irritated. What right does Tony Stark have to accuse Peter of risking Aunt May's life? He would _never_ do that. And he would never out _Peter_ as having any connections to _Spider-Man_ , except there was an emergency, and he did, and now _Tony Stark_ new at least some of his secrets, and that was _really not good_. And _he_ was lecturing _Peter_ on the proper use of secret identities when it was the genius billionaire who announced his superhero identity and the address of his and his loved one’s home to the _media_.

Before he could defend himself further though, Iron Man continued.

"That’s another thing. The kid is a genius, you can’t just keep him all to yourself. He should be able to share his brains with the world without risking his life."

"Well now you are just being ridiculous. I am not forcing him to do anything, it was his choice." Peter pouted. He was _not_ forced, and it _was_ his choice.

"Oh, because emotional manipulation is so much better. What did you tell him? That it was his moral obligation? That if he didn't, then everybody whom you could’t save was on him?" That hit a nerve. It _was_ his responsibility. That’s what uncle Ben taught him.

"When you could have done something but you didn't, and something bad happens, that's on you. He can do something. He knows it. I didn't tell him to do anything. It was his choice." He seethed, eyes narrowed behind his mask. Mr. Stark lifted his faceplate. He was beyond furious now.

"He is a _minor_. What you are doing is a crime. Saying that he is capable of making his own choices is the kind of thing pedophiles would hide behind." He hadn't raised his voice, but that didn't make him any less threatening.

"He is fifteen, not five, and extremely intelligent." Peter felt awkward saying things like that about himself, but he needed to make his point. "And he isn't exactly fighting criminals himself or even making weapons.” The other hero flinched at that. "What he is doing is helping me out with tech problems every once in a while."

"Here is the deal, _Spider-Man_." Mr. Stark snarled the name. "You clearly don’t care about his safety and won’t stop just because I said so, and Peter is way too nice to stop helping you. I don’t see another way than to offer you an alternative. Here’s what’s gonna happen. You get your tech from me, maybe through me if you absolutely must exploit him like that. You don’t contact him. Any tech made by him that you have, you received through me. You have never met him and you never will. In fact, as far as anyone is concerned, you barely even know he exists." As he finished his tirade, Iron Man snapped his faceplate shut and flew off without waiting for an answer.

Peter was left there gaping. It took him a couple of seconds to snap out of it, but when he did, he quickly checked on his trapped criminals like flies in his web, wasn't that a cute metaphor? They were both in place, and thankfully he had closed the car door behind himself, so they hadn't heard a single word of the argument. Which was good both for publicity reasons and secret identity reasons.

He left the van once more and dialed the police on his Spidey phone. He was preoccupied before, so he hadn't notice, but some twenty meters from where he and Iron Man had been standing, reporters and photographers were swarming, trying to catch as much as they could about what seemed to be a confrontation between the Spider-Menace and one of the Avengers. Now that Iron Man had left, they started inching closer, so Peter decided to leave the scene and ponder the new situation elsewhere.

* * *

He ended up on a rooftop (as usual), and he was staring unseeingly the setting Sun while thinking.

Iron Man was weirdly protective of Peter Parker. He didn't know what to make of that fact. The genius just decided to hire him as an intern, and even that seemed a bit excessive for learning that he was above average intelligence, but now he went out of his way to threaten a vigilante on his behalf.

Well, not threaten, per say. No threat was said out loud. But the _or else_ was implied.

The other issue was that Peter was sure he was right, that he was finally doing the right thing and not interpreting uncle Ben’s words wrong. But for some reason, Tony Stark, his role model, thought differently. Not only that, but he all but treated Peter as a criminal.

Well, of course, Mr. Stark didn't know that Peter was also Spider-Man. Or that Spider-Man was underage, for that matter. But did that really have to make such a big difference?

In any case he regretted the weapons manufacturing comment now. It just slipped out in the heat of the moment, and it visibly stung. However misguided, Mr Stark meant well, and he only had Peter’s best interest at heart. He would apologize, but it didn't seem like Mr. Stark was very inclined to talk to Spider-Man ever again. And it’s not like he could pass those apologies on as Peter, because that would imply that Spidey had contacted Peter. (Peter was getting a headache from all of the secret identity stuff.)

For now he saw it best to comply with iron Man’s terms (as much as it was possible, Peter ans Spider-Man being the same person and all). He didn't want to risk retribution or accidentally reveal his secret identity. 

This meant that he dreaded the first day of his SI internship even more now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I take both hints and strongly worded advice if you leave them in the comments (I think).


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flash begins work at SI.

Flash Thompson woke to a beautiful weather on the morning of his first day as a Stark intern. Then his phone pinged that he got a notification from the Daily Bugle App. Apparently his kinda-boss-to-be was now at odds with his favorite superhero. That did not bode well.

Well, it's not like he would be working directly under or even any kind of under Tony Stark. He was working for Pepper Potts, which was way cooler if you asked him. She used to be a PA and she crushed at it so hard, she went straight to CEO. And when people were questioning her because they thought that only happened because she slept with Tony Stark, she proved them wrong within a month, SI was now flourishing more than ever, while also doing more charity than ever before. Flash was proud to have her as a role model. Well, her and Spider-Man. Which brought him back to thinking about the article.

Spidey was the best, there was no arguing that. Ever since the hero first appeared, he received nothing but scorn from the media, he had no financial support, and as far as anyone knew, he worked alone. Yet he had never done anything even morally ambiguous, never harmed a criminal beyond a couple bruises if they fought back, which was more than the police could say, and far more than the Avengers could. And on top of that, he was a real street-level hero, he payed attention to the little guy, helped old ladies across the street and tried to keep the property damage to a minimum.

Flash couldn't imagine that Stark had a valid reason for confronting him. He decided that before things got out of hand, he would set up a Spidey Support Group on facebook so that all the people he had helped could show their support for their favorite hero. He knew most of his decathlon team would join as well.

Probably not Parker though. Whenever Flash brought the hero up, Parker would laugh at him, or change the topic or simply leave. He didn't think much of Spidey apparently, and he certainly didn't think much of Flash. Admittedly, Flash was a bit bitter about that.

Their friendship was doomed from day one. Flash had chosen Midtown Tech because he knew of its strong Academic Decathlon Team. He had practiced for months before the test, he had applied, and he got in, barely. Then Peter Parker waltzed in, answered a few questions in Physics, and Mr. Harrington declared that he absolutely had to join the Team. No application, no test. Flash got pushed back to first alternate.

Flash was not a total jerk though, he was still trying to be nice to Parker after that, even though it had hurt. When Parker skipped practice every once in a while, Flash got his hopes up about maybe being on the team after all. But every time, he would turn up late, or only to the competitions and every single time Mr. Harrington would bench Flash, even though some five moths into the school year, he was already the second strongest member. True, he wasn't a _natural genius_ like Parker, but he had a goal, and he worked hard for it.

And this is how the history of what Flash thought of as a friendly rivalry started. (Despite everything, Flash didn't exactly hate Parker. He just wanted to defeat him in every way imaginable.) He started looking fro his own strengths. He realized he had way stronger social skills than Parker, so he changed tactics. Instead of trying and failing to fight Parker in the field of science, he decided to turn most of Midtown High against Parker. (He made sure it never went too far, no actual bullying, the closest it got was Flash’s own insults which he made sure were never personal. Like ’Penis’. Who would even take that seriously?) Unfortunately this turned out to be a horrible idea, because a) Parker didn't seem to care the least bit, only Leeds did, who stuck with Parker through everything, b) it was as Flash soon came to realize, Not A Nice Thing To Do, which is when Flash took on the habit of asking himself _What would Spidey do?_ and c) Mr. Harrington was all too eager to label Flash the villain after that.

So, even though that stupid nickname had stuck, Flash decided he would only use his Natural Leadership SkillsTM for the greater good, which meant that during that catastrophic field trip, he couldn't go and look for Parker, much as he was worried about that idiot, because he needed to take care of the rest of the class.

After the events, when everyone was safely rescued, and Ms. Potts was offering him the internship, and Parker appeared covered in dust and bone tired, he couldn't help but scowl at the idiot. And when Stark pointed out that he stopped the building from collapsing, he could have throttled the self sacrificing dumb ass. Parker couldn't, for the life of him, think about how his actions would make other people feel. He just stood there like a lost puppy while Stark made his aunt sign the internship papers. (She had apparently rushed to the site as soon as she heard what had happened.)

Well, Flash would be lying he denied being grateful for having Parker as an intern next to him. For one, he would have more opportunities to prove himself better than the other boy. For another, despite all is flaws, Parker was truly brilliant and he deserved the chance.

All that said, Flash didn't get why Stark's driver had to drive _both_ of them to work. (Well, he did, because Happy had explained: Stark only wanted him to drive Parker, but Ms. Potts made him make Happy drive them both.) But _still_. Parker kept looking at him weird, and he wouldn't talk to him, and he was clutching his backpack like his life depended on it. Especially since now that the tower got wrecked, the would start their internship at the Avengers compound upstate, which meant a longer journey.

By the time they scrambled out of the car, even Flash was getting a little nervous, even though he had been looking forward to this with confidence.

They were greeted by their bosses at the entrance. Mr Stark gave Flash a dismissive look then turned to his own intern.

"Pete, we will be working in my workshop today, is that okay with you?" before Parker could answer Ms. Potts interrupted.

"No, Tony, don't disappear, we need to talk about the new Stark Phone release. I just wanted to wait fro the boys so they would get an inside look into SI business. I just got reports of another shipment being stolen."

"Don’t you have insurance?" Flash asked curiously simultaneously with Stark's ’But we ave insurance, Pepper!' and Parkers 'I thought you had insurance?'.

"Yes, we do." She answered all three of them. "That is all nice and well from a financial standpoint, but I thought the Avengers might want to look into why large quantities of this one model have been going missing over the past week."

"Sure, honey, talk to Cap." Stark replied, and dragged Parker off, presumably towards his workshop. Ms. Potts sighed.

"Yes, he is always like that." she answered Flash's unasked question. "Wanna meet the Avengers, Flash?" That must have been a rhetorical question because she took off towards what looked like a spacious, sunlit living room. Thor was lounging on the couch, watching American Gods. He did not seem pleased. Captain America was sitting in an armchair in front of the large window with a sketchbook on his lap and he seemed to be drawing the view. The Black Widow was sitting in another armchair a bit away from them, and reading.

When they entered, all three of them looked up. Flash did his very best not to squeal in fanboyish delight. He succeeded.

"Guys, we have a series of robberies, do you think maybe you could look into it?" Ms Potts asked. It was Captain America that got up first and came over to them.

"Of course, ma’am." she replied. "What did they take?"

"The new Stark Phones. A lot of them. More than anyone could sell on the black market. I'm worried this might be about something else. You know Tony." She explained like that made sense. The Captain just nodded, like he understood perfectly well. Flash was completely lost.

He jumped embarrassingly high when the Black Widow snuck up behind him soundlessly and placed a hand on his shoulder. The giggle she stifled at that was one of the least threatening things he had ever seen, probably on purpose.

"Hi! I'm Natasha Romanoff." She introduced herself, and extended a hand to shake. Flash was in complete awe.

"Flash Thompson, I'm an intern, and delighted to meet you!" He gushed completely honestly. He shook her hand firmly. She placed an arm over his shoulders and led him to a couch opposite of Thor's, while throwing a "Mind if I steal him for a bit?" over her shoulder at Ms. Potts which was not really a question. Ms. Potts nodded anyway and went back to discussing Avengers business with Captain America.

"So, Flash," she began "why is it that you got hired? As far as I know Stark doesn't let anyone work this close with his girlfriend he hasn't vetted himself."

"How do you know I wasn't vetted?" Flash asked, curious.

"Fair enough. I know because I know how and why you got hired, I just wanted to hear it from you." When she finished speaking, she kept looking expectantly at Flash. When it become obvious this was meant as a question, he spoke hesitantly.

"She hired me 'Because of my leadership skills'. He let her because he wanted to hire his own intern. I guess you are doing the vetting now, then?" Maybe he shouldn't have said that. One does not question the Black Widow's motives. But it was too late now. To his surprise, Ms. Romanoff burst out laughing.

"You're good, kid. Walk me through your story, then maybe I can give you a few lessons that might come in handy as an intern to the CEO of Stark Industries."

"Deal!" Flash grinned brightly.

He almost came to regret his decision when fifteen minutes into the Widow's self defense lessons he had to scrape himself off the floor for the tenth time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, and for each and every comment, they mean a lot! I'm looking for a new title, because this one sucks, ad I appreciate suggestions.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's first day (finally), which includes puns. Be warned. Tony's POV.

"Sure, honey, talk to Cap." Tony told Pepper. He dismissed the issue out of hand. His phones were worth stealing, everybody knew that. If Cap wanted to chase after petty thieves he wasn't going to stop him, but he also wasn't going to join him either. He had better things to do now. Like get his new intern settled in.

He guided the kid towards his private lab. He seemed nervous and he was clutching his backpack like a security blanket. Dummy would cheer him up though, Tony was sure.

"JARVIS will recognize your voice and let you in the lab." He informed Peter as soon as they reached the workshop. "Wanna try? Oh, by the way, JARVIS is my AI, I don't believe you have met? Not in the past seven years at least?" Tony rambled. The kids nervousness was making him nervous now.

"Hello, Mr. Parker." The AI said before Peter could answer, but the kid didn't seem to be capable to do so anyway. The revelation that Tony actually remembered him rendered him speechless. JARVIS was a welcome distraction from that issue for the kid.

"Yeah, hi, Mr. Jarvis." Pete mumbled and JARVIS opened the door of the workshop.

Tony strolled in then turned around.

"Welcome to my lair!" He declared dramatically. Then he gestured to the only clean desk. "And that part of my lair will be yours from now on." Peter's eyes lit up, and he was focused on something behind Tony’s back. The genius didn't have time to turn around before Dummy doused him with a fire extinguisher. „And that would be DUM-E. The one with the water bottle is U and the one with the wrench is Butterfingers." He introduced the other two bots who were rushing to help him but missing by a mile.

On the plus side, DUM-E did seem to cheer Peter up, he was trying very hard not to laugh at his new boss. On the other hand, he needed to change.

"Will you be fine here while I go and change?" He asked. "JARVIS will answer any questions you have and you can settle in and start to think of projects you are interested in doing. Don't worry, if there isn't anything, I can give you assignments." Peter nodded hesitantly. Tony grabbed his spare clothes that he kept in the workshop and headed to the nearest bathroom. He got intercepted by Pepper on the way back.

"Tony, don't think I'll just gloss over you siccing the Black Widow on my intern." She said without preamble.

"I wasn't trying to be sneaky. He needs to be screened, and if he passes, Nat will train him a bit so he can protect himself and maybe you. Don't worry, it will take up two hours of his time each week, tops." Tony explained. Pepper didn't look pleased.

"What about your intern then? Who screens him?" She asked.

"I did, of course. He checks out." Tony replied without hesitation. "Plus I can protect myself if I have to. I am much more worried about you. Nat is good at her job, she won't traumatize him too much."

"Fine. But just because that's the most romantic thing you said to me this week. And you owe me two business meetings for this." She relented.

"But Pepper!" Tony tried to argue, but when he saw Pepper's expression, he scurried back to the safety of his lab.

He returned o the sight of Hawkeye in his full Hawkeye gear sitting on Peter's desk, his feet dangling, and Peter leaning against the wall next to him. The archer was grinning widely.

"What the hell are you doing here, Barton?" Tony asked indignantly.

"Oh, you know, just getting to know the kid." Hawkeye replied nonchalantly. "Did you know he could make grappling hooks that have miles and miles of cable in it? Or arrows that stick to their targets really really well? Or that he knows a lot of bird puns? That's by far the most important one, by the way." Peter blushed under the praise.

"The first two, of course I knew. I hired him for a reason, birdbrain. As for the third, what did he do, flip you the bird?" He asked with a shit eating grin.

"Ha, no, but that's not a bad one, Stark. Anyway, Nat sent me, she said she had other things to do today but that someone should vet the kid. He passes with flying colors, by the way." He smiled at Peter at that. Peter smiled back. Tony tried not to be jealous. Why was it that Peter could be so easy-going around Barton of all people but froze up when talking to Tony?

"Whatever, Barton, get out of my lab." He growled at him, a bit more irritated than he wanted.

"Fine, fine, I’m going. But get the kid to work on my equipment." He hopped off the desk and strolled out of the lab. Tony gave his back a dirty look.

Peter pushed himself off the wall and stood hesitantly next to his desk.

"Yeah, about that. I thought, since I already have some experience with special equipment, and all that stuff could easily be done with the web formula, and I'm sure Spidey wouldn't mind…" Peter trailed off.

"You want to do Avengers equipment as your first project. I'm impressed. I'm going to have to test it thoroughly before Hawkeye uses it in the field of course, But otherwise, I don't see why not." Tony shrugged. "Anything special you will need for that?"

"Um, yeah." Peter nodded shyly, then he rattled off a long list of chemicals, all of which could easily be found in any high schools chemistry lab. Tony had to wonder if Peter came up with the formula during class. The answer was probably yes.

"Well, I can get all that by tomorrow." Tony confirmed. "Meanwhile, wanna work on something less biochem and more robotics?" He had to be careful, or Bruce would steal Peter. Biochem was more Bruce's thing.

"I'm not very good at that." Peter replied sadly. Tony would have called bullshit then and there but he decided to prove Peter wrong instead. He pulled a large pile of faulty or damaged Iron Man suit parts from underneath one of his desks and set it on Peter's desk.

"Guess we will see. You have until the end of today, build me something fun." He gave the instructions. Peter gave him a doubtful look.

"Something fun." He repeated. "Uh-oh. Okay. Need to get to work now." he mumbled to himself. He began to spread out and sort all the parts on his desk. Tony watched as what was first a random pile of junk slowly transformed into neat rows of bits and pieces. Peter seemed to forget about Tony’s presence altogether as he got to work.

Tony stood there for a bit then headed back to his own projects. He got absorbed in a new Spider suit’s schematics until JARVIS told him it was time for dinner.

That was when he noticed Peter was still there. The kid seemed to be almost finished with his work, so he walked up to him.

"So, what have you got?" He asked. Instead of a verbal response, Peter straightened and stepped back from his creation. The thing was flat, long and one end glowed with the familiar blue of the arc reactor. That end looked a bit like a face. "And what is it?" Tony asked, when no answer was forthcoming.

„It’s a tapeworm!” Peter beamed proudly. The thing began moving at the noise. It did move like a tapeworm.

"A tapeworm." Tony repeated in a flat tone. "In what universe are tapeworms fun?"

Peter looked crestfallen. So did the tapeworm.

"But-but it's got cameras, and it's very good at hiding. It can infiltrate things and it can tape things!" Peter explained. Tony buried his face in his hands at the pun.

"Kid, do you even know where that expression comes from? Have you even seen a videotape like ever?" He asked.

"I'm not _that_ young, Mr. Stark!" exclaimed Peter indignantly. "Of course I have, we learned about it in school!" That did not help at all. Tony sighed.

"Would you mind if I offered the thing to Nat? Since you wanted to make Avengers stuff anyway?" Tony asked "I think she would love it." he added.

"Wow, the Black Widow, are you serious? That would be totally awesome!" Peter rambled.

"Cool, I'll show it to her." Tony grinned. "On the condition that she doesn't use it against me." he muttered to himself.

While Tony gathered the remaining parts into a box, Peter grabbed his backpack and shuffled awkwardly towards the door. He seemed hesitant to leave. When he reached the door, he turned back.

"Mr. Stark?" He began. "About Spider-Man? I guess you told him something, because it was in the papers that you spoke to him, and he hasn't contacted me since… I guess I'm just wondering, did you tell him to do that? And if so, what if he needs stuff? What if he gets hurt because he doesn't have it?" He was back to hugging his backpack to his chest now.

"Don't worry about him. No, he won't contact you again, and, yes, I told him not to. He gets his tech from me from now on." Tony declared.

"But what if he needs something ASAP?" Peter asked.

"He can start anticipating those kinds of situations like everybody else instead of putting minors in danger." Tony fumed. Peter looked even more nervous at that.

"He doesn't… He wouldn't… Never mind, Mr. Stark. See you tomorrow." Peter mumbled and all but ran out of the room. Tony asked JARVIS to tell Happy to take the kid home while he contemplated the conversation.

He did not like how attached Peter seemed to the vigilante. Or how hesitant the kid seemed to speak his mind around Tony. Well, nothing he couldn't overcome, given enough time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, feedback is appreciated! I still need a better title, so if you have any ideas, leave them in the comments please!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's day 2 of the internship, and Peter meets someone new.

Peter Parker was late. Again. While the previous day Mr. Stark had sent his chauffeur to pick him and Flash up, today Peter was on his own, and, as was becoming his habit, late. But Ned wanted to talk to him about the Avengers, and the internship, and MJ absolutely had to talk to him about Decathlon practice, and he missed his train.

Unlike the previous day, Peter was headed to the Tower. He had received a text that morning telling him to meet Mr. Stark there at 3. Peter was wondering whether Flash had received a similar text, and if he was running late as well. Somehow, Peter imagined Mr.Stark would still take that better than Ms. Potts. She seemed strict about these things.

When Peter finally reached the Tower 30 minutes late, Mr Stark was waiting for him at where the entrance used to be. What remained of the lower parts of the building was covered completely in scaffoldings, and Peter’s measly webs had been replaced by steel cables and such, to keep the building upright.

The text Peter had received also explained that today Mr. Stark was going to work on saving the building from a complete rebuild, and that he wanted Peter there to see how he worked and because he might have some useful input.

Peter felt really insecure about the whole thing. He felt like he was already disappointing Mr Stark, what with the whole tapeworm thing. Even Ned didn't find it funny, and Ned was his best friend. And then with the whole Spidey thing, and the fact that Peter couldn't put together two normal sentences in the man’s presence without going off on a tangent about something completely irrelevant, or fanboying like the fanboy he was, or simply getting distracted while the man was talking to him. Like right now.

"…Ms. Rushman." Mr. Stark finished. A pretty brunette was holding out her hand towards Peter for a handshake. Peter took her hand. He was unsure whether he was supposed to say his name or Mr Stark already did that, but he was saved by Ms. Rushman.

"It's nice to meet you, Peter." His Spidey sense was not exactly going off, but nor was it perfectly calm. Peter didn't know what to make of that. The lady seemed nice and she obviously working for or with Mr. Stark, so it couldn't have been about that.

"Can you walk us through what you did with the building? I just had the Iron Legion reinforce everything you did, I haven't looked at it yet." Mr. Stark explained. Peter nodded, and he started explaining about the original blueprints of the building, its inherent weak points and where the explosions would have weakened it further. He went on to speak about where his webs needed to be placed, how strong they needed to be, and where they had to be attached so as not to pull the structure further apart.

"Wow, you seem to know the building really well." Ms Rushman seemed a bit curious but not overly concerned. Mr. Stark just smiled proudly. Peter had no idea what he was proud about. He wouldn't have been proud if his building had gotten blown up.

"Uh, yeah, I guess I'm a bit of a fan?" Peter mumbled. Mr. Stark ruffled his hair. Peter gave him a bewildered look. That came completely out of the blue. Mr. Stark just patted him on the head once more, and reached into his pocket to pull out a StarkPhone.

He tapped a couple of things on it and it projected a 3D model of the Tower into the air. He threw the phone at Ms. Rushman who caught it without looking, and Peter's Spidey sense started buzzing just a little bit louder, but he ignored it. He was, however impressed with the fact that the hologram stayed in place as the phone projecting it flew through the air.

Mr. Stark reached up to it and with a fluid move, zoomed into it, pointing out to the two of them what Peter just explained. As the afternoon progressed, they began working out a plan to reinforce the structure, rebuild the missing walls and windows, and of course to replace the Arc Reactor. (Mr. Stark said he could now make it 40% smaller. Peter pointed out that that would require parts containing a double-digit number of molecules. Mr. Stark smirked.)

All the while Ms. Rushman just stood there patiently and unobtrusively, holding the phone and listening to the two of them. Peter didn't really get what she was doing there, and Mr. Stark seemed to be ignoring her, so Peter tried not to be bothered too much.

That worked, up until the point where the phone rang, Mr. Stark redirected the call to his earpiece that Peter hadn't noticed before, and after a brief conversation, called an Iron Man suit and disappeared in it to save the world. Ms. Rushman followed him with her gaze, but when he disappeared from view, she looked back at Peter silently.

Peter didn't know what he was supposed to do. Was he supposed to wait until Mr. Stark got back? Was he just supposed to go home? He felt like Spider-Man should also go and save the world, but he couldn't exactly do that with Ms. Rushman right next to him.

"Uh, Ms. Rushman? I think I'll just… uh, go home? And maybe see Mr. Stark tomorrow. Yeah." He mumbled.

"Call me Natalie." The woman smiled at him kindly. "And there is no need for that, I'm sure Tony will be right back. Or if not, I'll walk you home." That was not good. Peter needed to loose her if he wanted to change into his Spider suit.

"That's alright, Ms. Rushman, um, Natalie. I don't want to be a bother."

"Nonsense, Peter, I don't have anything better to do, or I wouldn't have let Tony drag me along. And anyway, I wanted to meet this brilliant new intern he was constantly talking about." She smiled at him. Peter's Spidey sense was getting louder and louder.

"I think you have someone else in mind. I'm not really… brilliant?" he looked at her to check if he was even using the right word. It seemed absurd that _the_ Tony Stark would have said that about him.

"I don't think so." she waved him off. "I met Flash Thompson. Trust me when I say this, Tony would never be impressed with someone like Flash Thompson. Though I get why Pepper likes him." she made a dismissive hand gesture. "And anyway, I got the tapeworm, and I loved it, and wanted to thank you." She finished, like she hadn't just dropped a bombshell on Peter.

Peter froze. He briefly considered inching away from the woman who turned out to be one of the deadliest assassins in the world, but he thought better of it. He wanted to live. And she didn't seem like she wanted to off him. Yet. She must have seen how freaked out Peter was, because she gave him an encouraging smile.

"That's… good I guess? Are you sure? Do you want any specific functions that it doesn't have yet? Or to make it longer? Or smaller?" he rambled.

"That's okay, I love it the way it is!" She beamed at him. "SHIELD rarely gives me any fun spy stuff anymore, and Tony is a busy man. By the way I named it Brutus, do you mind?"

"No, of course not." Peter gave her a hesitant smile. "Do you really like it?"

Instead of a reply Natalie, well, Natasha, or the Black Widow, or Ms. Romanoff, or whatever else Peter was supposed to call her now reached into her purse, a pink leather thing that looked like it cost more than everything Peter owned, and pulled out the hastily put together piece of machinery that was the tapeworm. She draped it around her neck and began petting its head. Brutus began to purr thanks to the very primitive AI Peter managed to code into it in the brief time he was given to work on it.

On the plus side, his pathetic little tapeworm just got adopted by someone that clearly appreciated it. Who just happened to be the Black Widow. On the down side, Peter lost all hope of disappearing on her to be Spider-Man. Also it made sense now why his Spidey sense had been acting up all afternoon.

"So, I guess we should wait for Tony to get Back." The Black Widow said after a pause, and took a seat on the edge of the sidewalk in her undoubtedly expensive and uncomfortable dress pants. Peter followed suit. The tapeworm slid off her shoulder and across Peter's lap. Peter started mindlessly petting it. His life was getting way too surreal.

This is where Mr. Stark found them when he landed in his suit of armor.

"Back to work, guys." He said as his suit folded away from him and flew off towards the top of the tower. He stepped in front of the model that the phone in the Black Widow's hand was still projecting. Peter jumped up to do the same, and Ms. Romanoff followed slower.

"Actually, why are we doing this on the sidewalk? Lets go get burgers." The genius decided, and before anyone could interject, took off.

Peter expected Mr. Stark to take them to one of those rich people hamburger places with sticks though the burgers and sweet potatoes on the sides, but Mr. Stark lead them to the nearest Burger King. He ordered whatever the daily menu was for all of them, and a brownie for the Black Widow when she looked at him menacingly, and they took a table by the window.

The billionaire immediately unwrapped a burger and took a huge bite, while the Widow grabbed the brownie and ignored everything else. Peter started playing with his straw.

"So, you two get on well while I was gone?" Mr. Stark asked once he swallowed.

"Yep." Ms. Romanoff beamed at Peter. Mr. Stark threw her a dirty glance and looked at Peter questioningly.

"Yes, Ms Black Widow, um, Ms. Romanoff?... uh, Natalie is really nice." Peter stammered out blushing. While the two adults laughed at him. But seriously, how was he supposed to call her now?

"You can just call her Natasha." Mr. Stark took pity on Peter. Peter looked at her for affirmation. She nodded, still smiling.

"Thanks for babysitting, Natasha. Now go." Tony told her, rather rudely in Peter’s opinion.

"No way, this is just gonna get more fun from here." She said with an evil smirk and stretched out on her seat. She still managed to look scary, even though she had a browny in front of her and a robot tapeworm that kept sliding back around her neck from wherever.

"Fine. Whatever." Mr Stark sighed, then he turned back to Peter. "Eat up, kid, then we get back to work."

Peter unwrapped his sandwich then polished it off fast. He slurped up his coke, wiped his hands and turned his full attention to the task at hand. He almost completely forgot about the assassin's presence until they wrapped up for the day.

"Since you don't have anything better to do anyway, you can take the kid home." The Mr. Stark declared out of the blue. The Black Widow, who had been silently sitting by their table and petting her tapeworm, gave Peter a fond smile and nodded.

"See you back at the compound." she told him. He nodded back and turned to Peter.

"Goodnight kid. See you tomorrow."

"Night Mr. Stark." Peter said while stifling a yawn. It was getting late, and he wasn't going to sleep for a while, he would patrol for a couple of hours before that. He followed the Black Widow out.

He hadn't given much thought to their method of transportation, so he just followed her when she began to walk. She led him to a beautiful sleek black bike. Without wheels. One of those hoverbikes. That weren't on the market yet. Peter was in love.

While Peter was busy drooling at the sight, she threw a helmet at him, which he only caught thanks to his enhanced instincts. She put on her own helmet and straddled the bike. Peter cautiously sat behind her and she grabbed his hands and placed them around her waist, then she took off into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tapeworms are gross. The only people that son't think so are the ones that thought it was a good idea to base their superhero identities off of spiders.
> 
> The new title was inspired by the user keyboard (https://archiveofourown.org/users/keyboard/pseuds/keyboard). Thank you again! Sorry, I don't know how to make names into links.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Filler from Natasha's POV.

Natasha was steering the hoverbike towards Peter’s home (of course she knew where he lived, she was the Black Widow, duh), while her thoughts wandered.

Natasha liked the kid, okay? At first she just wanted to rile Tony up by nosing around, but Peter was a delight. (Tony had asked her to vet Flash for him, and her condition to do so was to do the same to Tony’s intern.) While Flash turned out to be completely average and boring (and Natasha could see perfectly well why that would rub Tony the wrong way, there was no potential there for Tony (or Pepper, in Tony’s mind) to build on, and so he labeled Flash as a waste of time.

Peter on the other hand was a genius on Tony’s level, and that was saying something. Tony Stark was the guy who built the first Iron-Man suit in a cave in Afghanistan. A lot of people tended to forget about that, and while it was impressive to build the stuff he built using his father’s fortune (or sitting on the world’s largest pile of vibranium for that matter) it was nowhere near the level of genius required to do the same with nothing but scraps.

Now, Peter, he developed a material five times as strong as steel with the ingredients in a high school’s science lab.

When Tony threw it out there that she could tag along to meet Peter, she expected someone with an ego rivaling Tony’s. What she found instead was a really shy and awkward teenager, who was, on top of that, polite to a fault. So much so, that Natasha was almost concerned about the lack of self-esteem the kid seemed to have.

Natasha parked her bike in front of the house, and both of them climbed off. They took off their helmets and Peter handed his to her. His hair looked even more messed up now, and he was all fluffy and big-eyed, Natasha felt the urge to cuddle him. She held back, of course.

"So, uh, Natasha, tank you for bringing me home." Peter mumbled.

"Not so fast, Peter, I’m walking you to the door." She smiled at him. She was not trying to be threatening, promise. Judging by Peter’s expression, she didn't succeed.

Nevertheless, they walked up to the flat together. The woman who opened the door, Peter’s aunt, was, as Tony had put it, hot. Natasha had to give it to him.

"Hi, May." Peter greeted her.

"Natasha Romanoff." she introduced herself and held out her hand.

"Hey, how come you tell her who you are straight away, but you hadn't told me?" Peter asked indignantly. May hid her smile behind her left hand while she shook Natasha’s with her right.

"That’s because I want her to know we won’t just let you walk around the city all alone during nighttime, and that you were in safe hands." Natasha explained.

"Why don’t you come in?" May stepped aside from the door. Natasha followed Peter inside. The teenager took a seat on the couch, and the two women followed him. "Would you like something to drink?"

"No, thank you." Natasha politely declined. "Mrs. Parker, I just wanted to say that Peter is a great kid, and that he is really smart. One in a million. You should be proud."

Peter blushed a deep shade of red at that. May smiled fondly at him.

"Please call me May. And trust me, I know. If only he did, too." she sighed.

"May, we have talked about this. Even if the Mensa IQ test is trustworthy, which I have my doubts about, according to that, I am in the top 1%. That means that out of the 7.5 billion people on Earth, that’s still 75 million people potentially smarter than me. And, as I said, even the 1% is a really big _if_." Peter rambled.

"Yes, you _have_ said that before." May sighed. "And _I_ have told you that the Mensa test didn't say you were at the bottom of that 1%, only that the test was not capable of measuring any more accurately. Also, out of those 75 million, how many do you think live amongst circumstances where it is impossible to reach their full potential? They will never be your competition." They sounded like well practiced arguments.

"May, knowing that doesn't make it better, it just makes me feel like a privileged brat." Peter groaned.

"Peter, look at it this way," Natasha interjected " _Tony Stark_ thinks you are worth his while. And the _government_ probably couldn't pay for his time."

"Now that you mention it, that _is_ weird." Peter retorted. "Sorry. I’m just tired." He rubbed his eyes after a short pause.

"Yes, go get some sleep, Peter, I think I’d better go." Natasaha took the opportunity. "It was nice meeting you May." She said, then after a few more pleasantries, she saw herself out. She drove her bike back to the tower for a quick change of clothes, but she got intercepted by Tony.

"So, what do you think?" He asked without preamble. "He is great, right? I told you he was great." He said that like he had anything to do with that. Though Natasha could hardly blame him, the kid was growing on her too. Though that low self-esteem probably only made it easier for Spider-Man to exploit him.

"He _is_ great. But you should make absolutely sure that nothing happens to him. What you are doing is not that different from what Spider-Man had been doing." Natasha stroked the tapeworm absentmindedly.

"Nonsense. It’s completely different. I’m a genius, a billionaire and a superhero on top of that. No-one is going to go after him because of me, and even if they do, I can protect him much better. Plus, he is not my only known civilian contact." Tony brushed her off.

"Well, Spider-Man is a superhero too. All I’m saying is please be careful. Peter is a good kid and a brilliant one. Don’t let him get hurt. Spidey has managed to avoid that, and he would have continued to do so if Peter hadn't been forced to reveal his connection to him.” She said. "Please be careful."

"I’m always careful." Natasha just snorted at that.

"Well, I’m going to go see our friendly neighborhood vigilante now. Tell the others not to wait up." She blew him a kiss and strolled off.

The genius didn't notice the tapeworm, that had turned off its lights and slithered off in the direction of the Avengers common room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short and that nothing happens in it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of eight-legged persons in this one. Peter's POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the loooong wait, I haven't got a good excuse, I was on a vacation. On the other hand, this chapter has actual plot. Also I've taken liberties with some canon characters' backgrounds, so if that bothers you, I'm sorry.

After the Black Widow had taken Peter home and left, Aunt May put together a quick dinner for the two of them, which included spaghetti and a jar of pre-made bolognese sauce (and an apple for each of them to stay healthy) Peter retreated to his room 'to work on his homework'. That wasn't a complete lie. He was working on what he considered his Spidey homework. Since developing his tech was out of the question now, he spent the time checking up on Spider-man's contacts. Most of them were civilians that he had saved and felt responsible for their continued wellbeing, like little Sarah whom he had reported the abusive father of a couple of months ago, and who was adopted by a really nice couple, but Peter still couldn't help hacking into her school systems of stopping by her balcony every once in a while.

Most of the people under his protection were doing fine. Dr. Octavius on the other hand, hasn't been seen at his workplace for a few days, and his social media accounts haven't been updated for the same amount of time. (Normally the latter wouldn't be surprising given the scientist's age, but he often worked with students and he prided himself on being available to answer their questions at all times.)

Otto Octavius was actually one of the few of Spider-Man's contacts who was also familiar with Peter Parker. Peter attended a summer science camp a few years ago and made an impression on the scientist. Spidey made his acquaintance when, after an accident at Dr. Octavius' lab, instead of rushing headfirst into the compromised area, he followed lab safety protocols and got everyone out safely. They had actively kept in contact ever since, and the scientist had even helped him out on multiple occasions when he got stuck on some problem.

So, Peter felt it was justifiable that he felt somewhat responsible for the older man. After making sure that May was in the shower and wouldn't notice him leaving (she was singing Solo to herself, so she wouldn't hear him), he snuck out the front-door, suit in backpack. Normally he would have used his window, but with Tony Stark's figurative eyes on him, he wasn't going to risk anyone seeing Spider-man crawling out Peter Parker's room. Especially not after the pedophile metaphor.

He cursed his decision to use his webs at the Tower as he hid behind a dumpster in a nearby ally and began to shed his clothes, while a light rain began to drizzle. Once he was all suited up, he webbed his backpack under a windowsill, then sprayed it with his newly invented 'web-duration-prolonging-spray' (he should really give it a better name), which, in the current weather, would give him just under five hours before the rain washed away the spray, the webs dissolved, his backpack fell in a puddle, soaking all his clothes and he had to drag himself back home in wet clothes in the middle of the night, which, knowing him, was totally going to happen. (Yep, he was rambling in is mind again. In his defense, he was a bit worried about Dr. Octavius.)

He climber the walls to get to the roof, and just as he was about the throw himself off of the building, he heard a voice behind him.

"Nice weather, huh?" The Black Widow asked in a polite tone, that people generally use to talk about the weather, but hardly ever after dark, or while it was raining, not to mention both. Peter panicked. His first thought was that she never really left the vicinity of his home and had followed him from there to here. He tried to play it cool anyway.

"Quite nice." He agreed in the same tone. "Been waiting for a nice evening all week, to take a leisurely stroll."

"So that's what you do when you are out in costume. I was wondering." she nodded understandingly. She looked unfairly composed despite the fact she fas getting soaked from head to to a much as Peter.

"Actually, I think I am going to stroll off now, enjoying the weather and all that." Peter tried to take the out. He was kind of relieved that she hadn't implied in any way that she had discovered his identity.

"Well, in that case, let me accompany you." She smiled politely. That was not a request. Peter gulped involuntarily. He was the one to brake character first.

"Wait, you wanna come patrol with me or whatever?" He stammered out.

"Actually, yes, if you don't mind." She nodded along to emphasize. "Iron Man has a seemingly unnecessarily harsh opinion of you, so I thought I'd watch you in action to form my own."

That didn't actually sound so bad, aside from the part where Peter dreaded to think what would happen to him if she disapproved after tonight. He nodded slowly.

"Just to make things clear, would you only be observing? Or are you actually not against helping out? Because I might have a … situation? … that I have to take care of." He looked at her questioningly, not that she could see that. She seemed to ponder the question for a while.

"That would depend on your situation, I think." she decided.

"I have a contact. An acquaintance. He seems to have gone missing." He explained. "He is the mad scientist type, so it might not necessarily be as insidious as it sounds, but, let's just say I'm concerned." he finished lamely. She nodded, understanding.

"What's his name?" She asked. After Peter gave it to him, she turned her back to him without a word and began furiously typing on her phone. After about eight minutes, all the seconds of which Peter could feel awkwardly crawling by while he stood in a red and blue onesie on a cold roof completely soaked, she turned back to him with an address.

"Okay, Spider-Man. I did the boring part for you. Now let's see you in action." She said.

The address was that of a supposedly empty factory building. The cliché-ness of the situation was not lost on Peter. The building, if one were to pay attention to it, looked like someone went to great lengths to disguise it as abandoned and dilapidated as possible. What broke the illusion were the security cameras surrounding it that visibly turned every few minutes.

Now, this was the point where Peter would normally get access to their systems through their wifi, disable the cameras, and the power in the building, if he could manage, then creep in, web everybody up, find his target, Dr Octavius in this case, ask if he wanted to come with, which he probably would, because this looked more and more like a kidnapping, and then they would walk out and be on their merry ways.

The problem with that was that Spider-Man wasn't supposed to be any good with tech, and he wasn't supposed to contact Peter Parker and ask him to help out either. His go-to help with this kind of situation was the person he was trying to rescue, and, well, Peter was not going to cut his losses and rush in without disabling their security. Which left him with one option. He fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. The person on the other end picked up after three rings. Before Peter could speak, the Black Widow motioned for him to put it on loudspeaker. He didn't dare to protest.

"Hey, Guy In the Chair, before you say anything, no real names, we've got company, you are on loudspeaker. I need your help with this situation, can you do that?" he spoke before Ned could spill anything.

"What…Spidey? Yes! What do you need help with? Wait, let me guess, hack Hydra! No, wait, hack OsCorp? Hack SI? Hack…

"Oi, I just told you we had company! _Obviously_ I would never ask you to do something illegal!" Peter squeaked. The Black Widow gave him an amused look. "I need you to connect to my phone, and … okay, you guessed right, connect to the wifi of this evil lair, get into their systems and disable their cameras and security, and if you can do that, shut off all power."

"If I can do that? Do you know who you're talking to?" Ned asked. That was not empty boasting. Within minutes, he confirmed that he had succeeded.

"Thank's, Guy In the Chair. I owe you one." Peter let out a relieved sigh before he broke the line. He not only owed Ned a favor, he was going to have to explain the 'We've got company' bit too, he knew.

"So, you have a tech guy _and_ a guy in the chair?" The Black Widow asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't you?" Peter asked raising an eyebrow back, again, not that she could see from the mask.

"Yes, but I am a member of one of the best founded superhero teams in the world." She shot back.

"Well, I pay him in Star Wars T-shirts and help in chemistry homework." Peter deadpanned. The Black Widow narrowed her eyes. Peter realized his mistake too late. He had basically just implied that his guy in the chair was a teenager. He was so dead.

"We will talk about this later. You wouldn't want to miss your window." She gestured towards the building.

Peter silently agreed. He slowly crept across the space separating them from the building then equally slowly crawled up to one of the high windows on the sides of the building. Once he reached it, he covered it in webs to protect his fist, then punched a hole through the glass. Thanks to the webbing, it didn't make much noise. He crouched at the windowsill and used both his hands to widen the gap until he could fit through. once he was inside, he looked back at the other spider-themed superhero, who had followed him in silence. Climbing up the wall must have been a hell of a lot harder for her without the sticky hands and feet, but she still managed, vedging her fingers and toes between the bricks.

Peter decided to ignore her, because she was not here to cause him trouble, only observe, and Peter knew she was professional enough not to interfere. He stuck to the ceiling of what appeared to have been an office. It was empty. He made his was to the door, still on the ceiling, and using a web, slowly opened it. It mad a loud creaking sound.

"What was that?" he could hear a voice from down the corridor.

"Relax, it's an old building." Replied another. "Must be the heating."

"I'll go look." Peter could hear a door opening and closing and footsteps were getting closer. He hid on the ceiling right above the door where the person entering would have to directly look up to notice him.

He didn't give him the chance. As soon as the man entered the room, he shot a web at him, covering his mouth before he could call for help, then wit another string of web, he pulled him up against the ceiling next to himself and covered him in a cocoon. Once he was done, he saw the Black Widow silently crawling through the window and giving him a strange look. He just shrugged and crawled out the door, picking up the flashlight his victim had dropped on the way, turning it off.

The owner of the second voice from earlier was stepping through a door to the corridor, but lucky for Peter, the fact that he was on the ceiling and the almost complete darkness in the building hid him. He crept along the corridor until he was right above him, then webbed him to the ceiling, just like the previous one.

made his way to the door at end of the corridor, and again, the Black Widow followed him like a silent shadow, not interfering. The door led to the main hall of the factory, more specifically, a sort of balcony overlooking the area where the workers would be. It was pretty well lit by the streetlights streaming through the large windows of the building. The space had been remodeled and now it was completely empty save for five more thugs, probably the night shift, around a pile of stolen Stark phones, and what looked like half of a junkyard, including but not limited to three gutted washing machines, an electric car, two dozen toasters, five different kinds of lawn mowers, and what looked like a laser cutter.

Next to the pile of dismembered machines was the beginnings of a big, round something, a desk, and handcuffed by his ankle to the leg of the desk, Dr Octavius. He was sitting on the ground, while the five thugs surrounded him with their backs to him, guns in hand, waiting for an attack.

Peter shot a web at the giant steel beams holding up the roof, and swung in, kicking the gun out of one of the thug’s hands. Before the others could react, he shot webs towards each of them in quick succession. Before the fight could even begin, it was over, all of them webbed up and their weapons collected in a pile.

Peter walked up to Doctor Octavius, who seemed relieved to see him, but decided not to speak when his eyes fell on the Black Widow, watching from the balcony. Peter crouched down the break the handcuffs, then straightened up. He only realized now, that in the presence of the superspy, he didn't speak during the fight. Must have been her intimidating aura.

"Are you alright?" he turned to the scientist.

"Yes, thank you, Spider-man." He smiled at Peter, then he shot the Black Widow another cautious look. "What"s with the superhero team-up, and for little old me?" He asked jokingly.

"I'm being, uh, evaluated, I guess?" He looked at her for confirmation. She nodded. "How did I do? Wait, no, let's not do it here, I'll call the police, we can take Doctor Octavius home then we can talk about this.' He decided.

"That might be best." She smirked. Peter rolled his eyes at her behind the mask. Dr Octavius gave Peter a fond smile.

Back in Dr. Octavius' apartment, after the scientist had made them tea, to say thank you, they were all sitting around his dining table. Peter decided to address the main question.

"So, kidnapping? What was _that_ about?" He was not stupid. He had texted Ned to copy their servers, and he was going to look over them tomorrow, but that didn't mean he didn't want to hear what Dr Octavius had to say on the matter.

"Oh, that. They didn't tell me much. Bag on the head, threw me in a car, drove me to a place, gave me a pile of junk and told me to build an intergalactic portal. I told them I was a particle physicist, they didn't listen. You know how it is." he drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm. Peter muffled a giggle. Widow gave the two of them a curious look.

Before Peter could ask for more details, he continued.

"There was at least five of them guarding me at all times, sometimes even ten. I have maybe seen a total of fifteen different guys. They didn't talk much in my presence, they always left for that. When I asked for specific stuff, they usually didn't know what I was talking about. And before you ask, no, I didn't build them anything useful, mostly I was just buying time, and trying to pull a Tony Stark." he finished. Peter grinned at him fondly.

Otto Octavius was the kind of guy that came off as a complete jerk if you listened to him instead of looking at his actions. Peter knew better though.

"Well, tank you for that at least, Dr. Octavius." The Black Widow stood up. "But I think we should be leaving soon. I still need to talk to the little spider about his performance today and it's getting late. Goodnight." Dr. Octavius gave her a dirty look, but didn't protest.

"Spidey, drop by sometime. Don't bring her, if it's all the same to you. See you around." He addressed Peter, completely ignoring the Black Widow.

Peter promised to do so and said his goodbyes, then the two spiders left through the window. They made their way back to their original rooftop without talking to each other, Peter swinging, and the Black Widow on her hoverbike that had apparently self-driven to their location while they were having tea.

Peter was not too eager to start the conversation, so after the silence ad stretched between them, the superspy sighed and began.

"I'm not going to bite your head off you know. I'm not going to tell on you either." Peter sighed, relieved. This was the part he had dreaded, the part about Ned. "But tell me, friends with Peter, now this other teenager that's definitely not Peter, how old are you?" Okay, so Peter wasn't going to completely get away with it.

"Do I really have to answer that?" he pleaded. She gave him a look.

"Look, Spidey, I'm not going to pry any further, I will leave your secrets alone after this, I just need to know, because if a teenager is running around New York getting shot at, I have to make sure he has backup."

"Fifteen." he mumbled, because lying to the Black Widow was not really an option. "Please don't tell Mr. Stark. He was mad enough about a teenager _working for_ a vigilante, he would have my head for actually _being_ one."

"I won't." She promised with a said smile. "If you promise to call me if you get in any trouble." Peter nodded.

"Phone." She demanded. Peter fished it out of his pocket and threw it at her. She caught it and quickly added her contact info. Once done, she through it back at Peter.

"By the way, nice work today, though I have to say, you are a lot less creepy when you talk constantly." Peter didn't know whether he should take that as a compliment. 

By the time he opened his mouth to respond, the Black Widow had disappeared into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Assuming that you haven't just scrolled to the bottom of the page. I really like comments and most of the time I even answer them.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day of Ned Leeds at Midtown High.

"Nothing. Nada." Ned sighed, frustrated. He had just spent forty-five minutes, the better part of his lunch break in the library trying to gain any data about Doctor Octavius' kidnappers from their servers. If they could be called that. The school library had more advanced computers. What the kidnappers had at their hideout was an ancient PC that ran Vista, (which worked in Ned"s favor when hacking it) and didn't seem to be used for anything other than remote controlling the cameras to make them move and _look like_ they were surveying the area, and for the thugs to play Minesweeper on while on their breaks. (Ned had already compiled that data into a table showcasing their shifts and nicknames in said game. SWEEPSTER seemed to be the most efficient among them, holding the top five places in the expert category, all of the corresponding times under three minutes.)

Point is, Ned was kinda frustrated. Because last night he was woken at around midnight to hack a random bad guy lair without explanation, and this morning, while he could barely keep his eyes open, he had listened to Peter's explanation of how the Black Widow was basically stalking him now, or something, and then he sacrificed his lunch break to come here, Peter and MJ tagging along (the latter completely without an explanation, she just grabbed her bag and followed the two of them wordlessly). And it all amounted to essentially nothing.

Not that Peter seemed much better off. As he had expressed in much more expletives, _of course_ he got back to his backpack last night after his webs had dissolved, _of course_ he had to crawl home in wet clothes, and _of course_ all that happened after two in the morning.

MJ on the other hand looked happy, healthy and busy drawing how pathetic the other two looked in her sketchbook. At this point, nobody really questioned why she was there. MJ went wherever she wanted, knew whatever she was curious about, and did whatever she felt like. At some point during their high school careers she had decided to become Peter's friend, (Ned hypothesized that it happened after she figured out he was Spider-Man), and unfortunately for her, in Ned's self deprecating opinion, that also meant being friendly with Ned.

Of course, MJ would have said she only figured it out because she was observant. Some other people (namely Flash), had he known about the whole superhero thing, would have said she did so because she was obsessed with Peter. Ned suspected the truth was somewhere in-between.

Instead of verbally responding to Ned's outburst, Peter let out a long suffering sigh then lay his head on Ned's shoulder, while his eyes fell shut. Ned lay his head on top of Peter's. MJ's scribbling got more furious. Ned sent her a look that was supposed to convey 'I assign a 68.5% probability to the fact that you fancy my best friend, and you are not helping your case here' which probably came out more like a 'Boo!'.

And when they were about to finally scrape themselves off the library chairs and go have lunch, the bell rang. And they had chemistry next. Which they were going to be late for if they didn't get going.

They made it in time, barely. During the class, Ned had to stop himself from dozing off two times, and from blowing stuff up, only once. On the other hand, he had to stop _Peter_ from falling asleep six times, and from blowing stuff up four times, one and a half of which took place _while_ dozing off. This was followed by a PE where Ned actually managed to fall asleep on the mats when the coach wasn't looking, and got woken up by the bell.

And before this long and painful day would end, and he could return to his dearly beloved bed that awaited him in the safety of his home, they still had a Decathlon practice to go.

It was not a good sigh that they entered the classroom only to hear Flash's grating voice.

"And, right on my first day, I met the Black Widow herself. She even told me to call her Natasha!" he bragged. "Bet Penis never even left the lab all the time he spent there."

Peter's eyes actually opened at that.

"As a matter of fact, I did. Went on a field trip with Natasha and Mr Stark and everything. We even got burgers." he defended himself. Ned didn't really get why he still bothered. Flash found some new stuff to bully him about every time.

"Yeah? Well she is giving me self defense lessons." Flash retorted, as expected. Ned sighed and shook his head. Peter shot Flash a genuinely confused look.

"Doesn't Ms Potts give you, like, actual work?" He asked. The worst thing was, Peter honestly hadn't meant it as an insult. On his part, this was a real open-ended question. But that's not how Flash took it.

"Guess what, the Black Widow told me herself that if I get good enough, one day she might even trust me with the protection of Ms Potts." he sounded defensive. "Why? What do you do that's so important?"

"I... made a tapeworm…?" Peter mumbled. Ned sighed again. Because his best friend was really talented at a lot of things, but none as much as making his accomplishments sound pathetic.

Peter was saved by the next round of mockery by the arrival of Mr Harrington, and soon the team was busy with practice. That is, until Peter's ringtone interrupted them.

"Sorry guys, sorry, sorry." Peter kept apologizing while he walked over to his backpack, fished out his phone and looked at the caller ID. Then he froze. For a couple of seconds the only sound in the room was Peter’s cheesy ringtone.

"It's Natasha." he said. He raised up the device so that everybody could see the screen, which indeed read her name.

"Well, go on then, pick it up." Mr Harrington said. "We can wait a couple of minutes." the others shot him incredulous looks.

"Yes? Hello…oh? What did it do?... uh-oh, that doesn't sound good….yes, but not right now, I have Decathlon practice… Because Mr Harrington said so. … okay, after practice, can you plug it into your phone? that way I can access it from here and take a look at it. … of course, it's fine. Talk to you later. Bye." and the call ended. All eyes in the room were on Peter. "Um… she needs some maintenance done on the tapeworm." Peter said, like it was the most natural sentence in the world.

After some initial excitement, they finished the practice, and Peter, Ned and MJ, once again, relocated to the library. Lucky for them, it was almost completely empty, because Peter dialed the Black Widow and put it on speakerphone immediately. She picked it up after one ring.

„Peter! Hello.”

„Hi Natasha. Do you mind that I put you on speakerphone? I thought my friend Ned might be of help? He is really good with computers.” He explained nervously. Ned shot him a 'what the hell, dude, she will recognize my voice' look but probably missed by a mile, because Peter kept on talking. "Also MJ is here. She is nice." Ned actually snorted at that. MJ had many good qualities, and Ned liked her, but she was not, by any stretch of the word, nice.

"Sure thing, but only if I get to do the same. Tony is here, he already tried to do something about the problem, he is getting frustrated." said Peter’s phone.

"Yeah, of course." Peter agreed.

"Hi kid." came the billionaire's greeting.

"Hi Mr Stark." After Ned and MJ introduced themselves and everybody said hi to everybody, and it was established that Natasha was to be called Natasha, and MJ MJ, or else, the superspy plugged the tapeworm into her phone and Ned began downloading the data.

"By the way," came Mr Stark's voice from the phone, "is MJ short for some weird old-fashioned name like, say, Mary-Jane?" MJ shot the phone a murderous glare.

"No." was all she said.

"Okay-okay, I get it, MJ it is, no prying." the billionaire backed off.

Meanwhile, the upload has completed. Ned copied the whole code onto the school computer’s hard drive, along with the couple of sound and video files he had found there.

"So, Natasha, what exactly is the problem with Brutus?" Peter asked.

"You know how you gave it a really primitive AI? Well it definitely has a mind of it's own. Yesterday evening it decided to spy on the Avengers. You will find the results of that in the files."

"Uh. That is not exactly a malfunction. What Brutus does is like certain people, avoid some others, all based on what he learns and how, and it seeks out conversations. It's got some very basic learning algorithms to recognize those, and you might even be able to give it keywords to look out for, but that's all it really is capable of." Peter rambled, embarrassed. "Also I tried to encrypt it so it wouldn't get hacked. Sorry, Mr Stark." he added sheepishly.

Without warning, Hawkeye's very off-key singing voice filled the school library. MJ had opened the most recent sound file while Ned's attention was on the discussion.

"Okay, I see why this might be an issue." Peter relented. Mr Stark snickered. "But AI is not really my area. Mr Stark, do you want me to grant you access, so you can rewrite it?"

"Nah, kid, I think it's fun. besides, it's got a personality. But if Nat really wants something done, maybe your friend Ted could take a look?" Mr Stark asked. Ned didn't take offense. In fact, he was freaking out over the fact that _the_ Tony Stark knew 66.666% of his name. Even though it was only three letters.

"Hey Ned?" the Black Widow began. "Can you make it take orders a little bit better, but without killing it's personality?" She asked.

"I guess I could take a look." Ned dramatically stretched his fingers. They didn't pop.

He opened up the code. Peter decrypted it for him. He looked over it. Then he shot Peter a curious look. A large portion of the code concerned Peter himself. The AI was told not to spy on him, in very elaborate details. Peter went to great trouble to make it look like he was no exception, but the tapeworm wouldn't gather any data that would incriminate him as Spider-Man.

It was really quite well done for someone who claimed AI was not really their area. Ned spent the next hour and a half implementing the Widow's requests in broad strokes, then another two hours debugging his code. He made sure none of his updates touched Peter's protocols concerning himself. By the end he was really really tired.

Much as he was distracted, he could still make out Peter and Mr Stark talking about something that sounded suspiciously like environmental engineering in the background. MJ had disappeared somewhere in the middle, Ned only noticed when he looked up after finishing a block of code, and she wasn't there. After he finished, Ned shuffled over so Peter could re-encrypt the whole stuff.

"Okay. We are done." Peter declared after a long pause.

"Thanks Peter, Ned." The Black Widow said. "Can I call you if anything else comes up?" that last part was addressed to Ned, he thought, since Peter already kinda worked for the Avengers.

"Uh sure." he said, ten he stifled a yawn.

"Good night, boys." It was only at this point that Ned realized the sun had already set. He must have taken longer then he thought.

"Peter, take tomorrow off." said Mr Stark. "I insist." He added before Peter could protest. "You sound tired. Both of you, actually. Go home, rest. Bye kids!"

Ned dragged himself home and fell into bead with a groan, but fell asleep with a smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notice how I'm uploading chapter 9 on the 9th, in '19? Also, notice how I don't know anything about science or computers?


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony doesn't like meetings, but this is not how he wanted to get out of one.

It was only about an hour after the time Peter usually appeared, but Tony was already regretting having given him the day off. At least then he would have had an excuse not to be at the really boring Avengers meeting. Or he could have brought the kid with him, and he would be freaking about meeting more superheros, and that would be adorable.

"Are we boring you, Tony? This is about your phones, you know." Steve asked in that sickeningly polite tone of his, dragging Tony back to reality. Bruce was playing on his phone, Thor was staring off into space probably daydreaming about Jane and the two SHIELD assassins seemed to be the only ones actually paying attention to Steve.

"He is just pouting because Peter has the day off." Natasha interjected before he could say anything stupid like 'Duh.'.

"Ooh, when is he coming next? Can I talk to him about this really crazy idea for an arrow I had? Can I invite him to movie night? Can I…" Clint was like an excited puppy sometimes. (Tony was much more reasonable about wanting to spend time with Peter. No, seriously, he _was_.)

"Can we please get back to the matter at hand?" Steve asked, and at times like these, Tony was sure his _actual_ superpower was dealing with the team and keeping his cool. "As I was saying, specifically to you, Tony, because the others haven't skipped the previous meetings, is that Natasha found a couple of suspicious things, like old warehouses and factory buildings, filled all sorts of electric devices they could get their hands on, whoever they are, that includes your phones by the way. There have also been reports of scientists and engineers going missing. They usually go for the easy targets, most of them live alone or take shady alleyways to get home."

"Yes, about that. I have been gathering intel on them, and I thought it was too early to act, but then I ran into Spidey." Tony knew for a fact that was no accident. "Day before yesterday, or I guess night, I helped Spidey out with one of the rescues. He was looking for one of the missing guys, Otto Octavius. Found him in one of those buildings. The two things are definitely connected." Natasha added. Tony narrowed his eyes at the mention of her helping Spider-man.

"Wait, do you actually have more locations?" Bruce turned to Natasha incredulously. There were loud crashing sound effects coming from his abandoned phone. Not fair! Why did Tony have to pay attention, but not Bruce?

"Yes I do, and before you ask, we haven't attacked them because we are trying to gather more information." Natasha shot him a sharp glance. "I sent in the tapeworm to one of the newer ones. It should be back soon."

"Wait a second, why don't you just download the data remotely?" Bruce interjected. Natasha seemed more irritated by the second.

"Because, Bruce, having it be accessible would be a security risk. Either it could be controlled by a third party or they could trace it back to us. Peter designed it this way."

"He was right to do so, you know." Tony confirmed. "He thinks he is not good at security, so he doesn't risk it. Good thinking. Not that he _is_ bad at security. I tried to get into the head of that tapeworm, and believe me when I say it's impossible." He was grinning.

His boasting got interrupted by the arrival of the tapeworm (Tony refused to call it by name, even in his head). It slithered across the floor with its weird peristaltic movements, then up the leg of the table, and around Natasha's shoulders. It offered its front end to the superspy. Where on a real worm a mouth should be, this one had a USB slot. Natasha pulled out a cable to plug it into her phone.

Tony cringed at how old the technology looked, although he had to give it to Peter, this way, the only way to hack the worm would be if you caught it first.

"JARVIS, can you please display this for all of us?" Natasha asked, once she had downloaded everything.

"Right away, Ms Romanoff." The AI complied. A 3D model of an interior appeared floating in the air between them. "I have compiled the video feed into a 3D rendering, I hope that is alright." JARVIS added rather unnecessarily, but he was polite like that, and Tony was damn proud of that fact.

The room appeared to be an empty warehouse, and it contained large piled of what appeared to be junk at a first glance. At a closer look, it gave Tony the impression that someone had just grabbed a couple of electric devices completely at random, and threw a big pile of StarkPhones in for good measure, because they were awesome. (They were, and Tony knew, because he designed them.)

Amongst the piles of gadgets, there were two people talking.

"Relax, the kid will do just fine." The one appearing to be in charge said. "He is supposed to be a genius or something." The guy was wearing the kind of overall that was the origin of the phrase 'blue collar' but he had a neatly trimmed beard that looked like it was done in one of those hipster barber shops. Tony was getting a really bad feeling about this.

"Yes, but you said he was Stark's intern too. I don't care how cool those webs looked, I don't want the Avengers coming after us." the other one complained. Unlike his companion, who was tall and broad, he was short, pudgy and balding. He was wearing round glasses. Tony could have throttled him with his bare hands if he could reach him.

"Too late." Tony grit out. "Natasha, when was this exactly?"

"Two hours, thirty four minutes ago, sir." It was JARVIS who replied.

"Too late." the voice echoed Tony from the video. "Already sent the guys to grab him. He will be done with school in like twenty minutes then he heads home alone."

Tony was freaking out. This was about Peter, he had no doubts, and It was all because of Spider-Man. They all but said so, the webs were clearly what caught their attention. And if he hadn't hired Peter, the kidnappers wouldn't even have given a second thought about targeting a minor.

"I need to talk to Spider-man." Tony declared.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea." Natasha argued. "Not in the state you are in. At least not alone. Let me come with you."

"You have to go get him, Nat. You are the only other Avenger he spent more than fifteen minutes with. He might need a familiar face." Tony explained.

"Alright." Nat relented after a long staring contest. "But no physical violence, and especially no maiming or killing. He is young, he made a mistake. He is not a bad person."

"Alright guys, suit up, and meet me on the helipad in five. Clint, bring around the quinjet." Steve took over.

Tony took off to have a few words with a spider-themed vigilante.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any POVs in particular you would like to see, leave me a comment with a name in it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What? Peter was kidnapped? Are you sure?

11.

Peter was immensely grateful to Mr Stark for giving him the day off, but not for the reason the other man thought. He had no intentions to go home and rest. In the past few days, he had neglected his Spider-man duties far to often, and mainly because he was too tired after his internship to go out and help people. He was feeling really guilty about that, and he wasn't going to pass this chance up in order to catch up on sleep. People might need him.

As it turns out, though, as he saw when he went out as Spidey after school, they didn't. It was a really slow afternoon, the type when he did flips for requests, gave directions, and helped old ladies across the street. 

He was playing this game he had invented, where he was trying to sneak up on pigeons without them noticing him and flying away, when all of a sudden they all took off in a flurry of wings. In their midst, Iron Man landed and took a few deliberate steps towards Peter. Even though the faceplate was covering his face, he looked pissed.

"I swear I haven't contacted him since." Peter blurted. Mr Stark didn't stop though, he kept walking towards Spidey, and when he reached him, he grabbed him around the neck and lifted him off the ground. Peter reached up and stuck his palms onto the armor's wrists, holding himself up, so his throat wouldn't bruise. That would be a hard one to explain to May.

"No, seriously, last time we spoke was the day of the explosion. How is he, by the way?" Peter was getting really freaked out by the silence.

"Seriously, don't you ever shut up?" Iron Man finally grit out.

"Um." was Peter's really coherent answer. "Not really." He added truthfully. "Sorry."

"Well, _Spider-man_ , Peter was kidnapped, and it's all because your stupid webs! Are you happy now?" he shouted the last bit directly into Peter's face. Peter's eyes went wide under the mask. He wasn't kidnapped. (As far as he knew. Could he be kidnapped without knowing about it? He didn't think so.)

"I don't think so." He said that last bit out loud. "Why do you think so?"

"How would you know? You haven't spoken to him since Friday. Or was that a lie too?" Peter cringed. He decided that he didn't like being shouted at by his boss, especially when he didn't really understand what he did wrong. He even tried limiting talking to himself to a minimum. He was telling the truth when he said he hadn't done it since Friday.

"No it wasn't." He stated firmly. "And, seriously, why would you think he was kidnapped? And who would want to kidnap him anyway?" Like anyone would want Peter for anything. He was nothing special (aside from Spider-man, of course, but no-one beside Ned and possibly MJ knew about that).

"Are you kidding me right now?" Mr Stark sounded beyond furious now. "We have just been over this. The kid is a genius. You put him in danger. IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Peter was getting more and more confused. Why did Mr Stark think he was in danger, when he wasn't? And why did he think Spider-man had anything to do with it?

"Yes, but how do you know about it?" Peter asked for a third time. He was getting a bit impatient. "And if you are so sure, what are you doing here instead of helping him? Or are you just saying that you care?"

"The rest of the Avengers are on their way to get him. _I_ am here to skin you with a potato peeler for placing him in danger, because _I_ care, unlike _you."_ That was weirdly specific to be an empty threat. Also really really scary, so Peter decided it was time to get out of the choke-hold his boss was holding him in. He placed his feet on the other man's knees and used the leverage to pull himself away, and landed a few meters away on his feet, after flipping away from Mr Stark.

"No thank you." he said. He had a bit of a problem. He couldn't just say it out loud that he knew for a fact Peter was fine, because then he would have to admit to having first hand information on the matter. He couldn't suggest calling him either, because his phone was on him, and it wasn't on mute, and Spidey's phone ringing wen Mr Stark called Peter was not something he could explain away. He didn't even know _why_ Mr Stark thought he was in danger, but he strongly suspected it was a trap with the Avengers in mind, and they picked Peter because his disappearance was easier to fake. He was worried about them too.

"Tell you what. I _do_ care, and to show you that, the two of us are going to go rescue him. If a single hair on his head is hurt, you get to skin me with a potato peeler. I will even lend you mine. It's pink." He proposed. It seemed like a safe bet, knowing that he wasn't kidnapped. Also he didn't know where to look for the rest of the Avengers if Mr Stark didn't help him find them. Also he needed Mr Stark not to skin him with a potato peeler right now.

"How do I know you won't just stab me in the back?" Iron Man demanded.

"Seriously, dude, when have I ever given you reason to believe that I would do that? I mean, being careless about Peter’s safety, I get where you are coming from with that one. Maybe. But doing something deliberately evil like that? I _help_ people. And I risk _my own life too_ to do so." Peter ranted.

"Right. Sorry. You are right. I guess I get that you care too. I'm just worried." Mr Stark sounded very tired all of a sudden. "Fine. Let's go." He looked at Peter expectantly.

"Um, sorry, I'm a bit confused right now. Will you give me an address and meet me there? Or will you lead the way?"

"Just stick to the armor, that way is faster." Iron Man snapped. Peter wasn't sure he trusted Mr Stark not to chest beam him from fifty meters high, so he climbed on the back and stuck his palms and feet flat on the armor. The irony of the situation didn't escape him, he was now in the perfect position to stab the other in the back.

Without warning, Iron Man took off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like comments and kudos very much and I am not ashamed of that fact.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad guys!

Brad was given instructions, though they were quite unclear. His boss told him to get Stark's intern, where he supposedly went to school, and what time he would finish there. That's it. Which is why Brad was, unsurprisingly, rather at a loss, when at the exact time his boss had told him, about fifty boys left the school.

In order to overcome his dilemma, Brad decided to wait and see which one of them seemed headed in the direction of the Avenger compound of the Tower. Lucky for Brad, there was one and exactly one such student.

Brad gestured to his companion, Jim, who, in Brad’s private opinion was rather stupid, so there was no point in discussing the plan with him, an they followed the teenager. When they reached an emptier area, Jim took out a baseball bat and swung it at the kid's head. A real brute is what Jim was, Brad confirmed to himself, as Jim lifted the limp body over his shoulder. Brad dialed their pick-up guy, who, within minutes, appeared with a nondescript van. Jim carelessly threw the teenager into the back, and Brad was the one who had to climb after him to tie his wrists and make sure he was still alive and could be of use.

There was no point in kidnapping him only to damage him too much. They needed him, he was supposedly a genius or something. Brad decided to travel in the back to make sure the kid was okay, and he let his colleagues know. The van took off.

After a ten-minute ride, they reached their destination, and Brad lifted the still unconscious teenager out of the van. He wasn't struggling under the weight per say, but nor did it look as effortless as when Jim did it.

The van had taken them straight into the abandoned warehouse. It seemed like everyone from the preworks team had already left, and the room was filled with all kinds of cool gadgets. Brad was sure the kid would have no trouble building them what they needed, with all those shiny…things, right?

In order to not seem week, Brad carried the kid all the way to what would become his workstation, a chair and a desk, the latter bolted to the floor, and chained the boy's ankle to the leg of the desk, after setting him down on the chair.

It took about fifteen minutes for the boy to wake up, and Brad, Jim, and their driver, Dave spent the time alternating who got to play Minesweeper on the hideout's computer. Brad was proud to say that he beat Dave with bout twenty seconds (beating Jim was not an achievement, he usually blew himself up, because he didn't understand the rules of the game).

The kid blinked his eyes open blearily. He seemed to take in his environment slowly, and you could see when it registered that he was tied to the chair. He began to struggle immediately. When it was clear he wasn't getting out, he stopped moving and stated looking around.

His gaze first stopped at the large piles of electronic devices, then Jim, Dave and Brad. After giving all of them a once-over, his gaze wondered back to Jim. He probably perceived him as the biggest threat.

"Hello…" Brad took a surreptitious glance at his cue-cards for the kid's name, "…Peter. You are not in danger, as long as you help us." He began the speech.

"But I'm not Peter." Peter said.

"Yeah right." Muttered Dave. "Like that's gonna work. Doc Oc tried the same." He had. Brad had been there.

"As I was saying, Peter, as long as you cooperate and build us a functional space-time portal out of these parts, no harm will come to you."

"No, seriously, listen to me, I am really not Peter, and this is relevant because I _can'_ t build you anything." The kid explained. He looked panicked. Jim took a few steps toward him and looked threatening. It seemed to work.

Then the kid bit him. Jim howled in pain. The kid kicked him in the shin with his free leg. It seemed to hurt a lot less than the bite had. Dave reached for Jim's baseball bat, and Brad reached for a curling iron from one of the piles. If he had nothing better to fight with, he would not be ashamed to wield it.

"I'll have you know, the Black Widow herself taught me how to fight." The teenager insisted, while he tried to inch away from the still suffering Jim, without much success.

"This just further proof that you are really Stark's intern." Dave shouted from behind Jim's bat. "Why keep denying it?"

"What?! I'm not _Stark's_ intern!" He shouted back indignantly. "I work for Ms Potts!" That made Brad pause. Did he get it wrong? But then again, nah. What were the chances that both Stark and Potts had inters that were the same age, hired in the past week, and went to the same school on top of that?

"Listen kid, you don't have to admit to it. You just have to build the portal for us, and then you can leave. We don't want to hurt you." Brad tried to reasoning with him. The kid was about to calm down, it seemed, and he was eying up the closest pile of gadgets. Brad lowered the curling iron.

That's when Jim decided to get revenge for the bite and pulled the chair from underneath the kid, then proceeded to hit him on the head with it. Brad sighed deeply. _Clearly_ Jim had anger management issues, but the boss didn't believe Brad when he had said so, and he wouldn't pay for a psychologist.

"Great. Now he is out again." Dave drawled sarcastically.

"I know, right? I'm really good at knocking people out." Jim beamed, not catching the sarcasm.

They spent another twenty minutes or so playing Minesweeper. Brad decide against calling the boss and telling him about this being the wrong kid. For one, he was leaning towards this being the right kid and lying about it. For another, if it _was_ the wring kid, Brad was the one responsible for the mistake. He wasn't looking forward to the consequences of that.

The kid woke up much faster the second time around. He didn't seem confused about where he was and what he was doing there.

"You can't keep me here, you know." He began. "The Black Widow is going to come and rescue me. Or Spider-Man. Or both. Or Nat will bring the Avengers. Did you know that there have been rumors of the Black Widow and Spider-Man working together?" He seemed really excited about that fact too.

Brad was a lot less excited. Now that the kid mentioned this, even if the part about the Widow was probably a bluff, Stark was not the kind of person who wouldn't go help a kidnapped child, especially if it was someone who he knew personally.

Brad shuddered.

"Maybe we should just let him go." Dave muttered. He seemed to be on the same opinion. Jim growled at the two of them.

"No way, man. We are not letting some puny kid go just because he claims he is all chummy with the Avengers!" He barked.

"You know what, Jim?" Brad snapped. "From now on, this is your mess. You are the boss, but it's also your responsibility."

A slow grin stretched on Jim's dumb face.

"No takesy-backsies.” He told Brad with a satisfied smile.

"Uh, guys…" Dave interrupted them. He was looking at the entrance of the warehouse.

In the sharp light streaming in from the streets, Brad could make out the silhouettes of the Avengers sans the Hulk.

"Uh-oh." He said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honest question: Is it weird that I keep replying to comments? Should I stop, or do you like it?


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha knows... or does she?

The Avengers (sans the Hulk) stood in the open doorway of the abandoned warehouse. The harsh light streaming into the dimly lit building painted their shadows long onto the floor in sharp contrast. It was very dramatic and everything. The bad guys seemed to think so too, because they froze. So did the kid they had kidnapped. (The kid, who was, by the way, not Peter.)

Then a lot of things began happening all at once. The biggest of the bad guys grabbed a baseball bat from the floor and began running towards the Avengers, screaming. The really tired looking brunette in the middle began inching towards the opposite side of the factory.

"See, they did come for me." Flash Thompson exclaimed cheerfully.

The third bad guy, a tall one with hair that was clearly dyed black and not it's original color, mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like 'Phrasing!'.

Hawkeye shot an arrow through the shoelace of the big guy, pinning it to the floor and tripping him. Instead of falling, he just grunted and tore himself free.

Meanwhile, Iron Man rose into the air and began scanning the area. Thor was hesitant to throw his hammer, lest he hurt somebody, so he just sort of tried looking threateningly. Captain America threw his mighty shield at the brunette that was trying to hide in the corner, and promptly knocked him out.

The Black Widow ran towards the tied up teenager, but so did the black haired villain. He was behind the kid, so Flash had no way of knowing that he was wielding a rather heavy looking waffle iron and aiming it at his head.

"Spider-man!" The Black Widow shouted out of instinct. Said vigilante crashed through one of the windows near the top of the building, followed by another Iron Man, who managed to catch him just in time before he went splat, and took into the air again. Spidey shot a web at the waffle iron and pulled it off course.

And this is where things got a little confusing. Because Natasha could have _sworn_ that Flash Thompson was Spider-man. He went to the same school as Peter and Ned, had most of the same extracurriculars like academic decathlon and robotics club, and even his general height and weight seemed to match the vigilante's. Flash was also not completely new to hitting people, as was evident during his training. He even tried executing some of the same moves as Spidey, and Natasha attributed the failure to the fact that he was playing down his abilities.

But _clearly_ she was wrong. Spidey couldn't be at two places at once. Unlike Iron Man. That's right. Peter Parker was apparently so important to Tony Stark that he didn't trust the Avengers with his rescue, he had to send a spare suit to help.

Or he had sent the empty one to threaten Spidey. At this point, it was anyone's guess which one was the empty one.

So within minutes, the two SHIELD agents, two blond buff guys, two Iron Men and an extra Spider took down the three bad guys. (Spidey webbed up the black-haired one, and Thor knocked out the big one when he tried to attack the demigod.) Spidey then proceeded to web up all three of them, while the Avengers headed over to Flash. Cap used his shield to break the cuffs around his ankle while Natasha pulled out a knife to cut his hands free.

"So, Nat." Began Tony. "How exactly did you know that the Spider would decide to hitch a ride? Or that I would let him?" Came the voice from one of the suits.

"Not here." Natasha replied, which was a code for 'not in front of the kids' which was a code for 'this is embarrassing'. Thankfully, Tony let it go.

"About that. _How come_ you let him?" Cap inquired, turning to the armor that had spoken. "You didn't seem overly fond of him."

"He can be persuasive." Tony said while stepping out of the other suit. Which was a code for 'I was wrong and it's embarrassing', and Natasha understood it, because sometimes the two of them spoke the same language.

"Uh, guys...?" Spidey trailed off. He was slowly backing away from a Flash Thompson, who followed him just as slowly, staring at him with awe-filled eyes, and trying to touch his mask, as if to make sure he was really there.

"I think your intern just went crazy from the trauma of the kidnapping." Spidey explained. His back hit a wall and he began crawling onto it.

"Oh my gosh, I can't _believe_ Spider-man actually came to rescue _me_!" Flash squealed. Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"What about us? I thought we were supposed to be Earth's coolest heroes!" Clint exclaimed indignantly.

"It's 'mightiest'." Cap corrected absentmindedly, his eyes still on the unfolding scene.

"Uh, I think I'm just gonna… leave. Yeah." Spidey said and scurried up to a window.

"This is not over, Webhead! You are not off the hook yet!" Tony shouted after him before he could climb through it.

"Okay, fine, whatever, just ask the Black Widow for my number, I gotta go!" He rushed out, then disappeared from sight. All eyes turned to Natasha.

"So. You have his number then?" Tony asked. "You forgot to mention that."

"No no. It's not that surprising she has it." Clint argued. "What's surprising is that he _knows_ she has it, so he must have given it to her."

"True." Tony conceded. Their eyes never left Natasha. If she had been a lesser woman, she would have gulped. Instead she nodded in confirmation. He hadn't, but she was not about to tell them that. it was a tactical advantage for the Little Spider that he knew the Avengers better than they thought he did. 

"And you are going to give it to me?" Tony demanded. Natasha conceded. She figured Spidey wouldn't have let them know she had it if he didn't want them knowing. She rattled off the numbers, not caring if Tony would be able to remember them. She was still a little bit worried for the Little Spider, even though him and Tony seemed to work relatively seamlessly today.

Flash, who had looked crestfallen when Spider-man left, quickly typed the number into his phone. Natasha, without turning to look at him, reached back, plucked the phone out of his hand, deleted the new contact with a few taps, then handed it back to him. He looked crestfallen again.

"Question: who is taking the kid home, and who is taking the kidnappers?" Tony asked. "Hint: not me." He replied before anyone else could get a word in edgewise, the took off in his suit. The other followed after.

"I will take the young one." Thor offered. Flash seemed excited about the prospect, but Nat knew that wouldn't last if Thor was going to fly them by Mjolnir.

"And I will take care of these three." Cap sighed.

"Good. I need to talk to Tony." Natasha nodded. She and Clint walked out of the warehouse, where Bruce was waiting for them in a camouflaged quinjet.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So it turns out Spidey's number is the same as Peter's.

Natasha's feet rested on the glass tabletop of the coffee tale, while Tony was making himself busy in the kitchen so he didn't have to face Natasha.

He eventually returned holding two mugs of suspicious looking hot beverages.

"What's _that_?" She demanded as soon as she caught sight of them.

"Hot chocolate! Why? What does it look like?" Tony asked.

"Green." Natasha stated the obvious.

"That's because we out out of cocoa powder. I think. We might not have had any in the first place. I used matcha powder." The genius rambled.

"Then why don’t you call it a green chai latte?" she raised one eyebrow.

"Because this is going to be an emotionally draining conversations, the kind I hate, for which I need hot chocolate, of which we don't happen to have any. It's sweet, warm, and if I close my eyes while drinking it and call it a hot cocoa, I might me able to trick myself. Now spill." Tony set Natasha's drink down on the table next to her feet and took a seat opposite of her.

"Why don't _you_ go first?" She tried changing the subject.

"Because I made you hot chocolate. Now don't change the subject."

" _Fine._ This is embarrassing." Natasha grumbled. "I thought Flash was Spidey." There were a couple of seconds of silence. Tony stared at Natasha incredulously over the edge of his mug, that he held before his mouth, ready to drink, frozen in the air.

" _Why?_ " he finally managed.

"Because he is Peter's peer, okay? And Spidey seemed so young… And Flash is not completely new to fighting. Which, come to think of it, is a little bit alarming."

"Yes it is." Tony agreed, alarmed. "How not new? _Got into a few fights with other kids_ not new, _was taught how to box_ not new, or _beginner Hydra agent_ not new?’

Natasha sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

" _Practiced Spidey's moves in front of a mirror_ not new. Also _knows how to punch_ not new. Which could be any of the three. He is not good by any means, don't get me wrong." She added.

"Well I don't care then. Keep him away from Peter though. I don't want him getting any ideas." He shrugged.

"Another thing. I won't be able to keep training him for much longer, Pepper wants her intern back."

Tony made an abortive hand gesture while taking a long sip of his hot chocolate, then he lowered his mug. (It had a seventy-year-old looking Captain America on it.)

"Then give him back. It doesn't sound like he could be of much use anyway. By the way, yours is a hell of a lot more embarrassing, just so you know."

"So what's yours?" Natasha demanded, crossing her arms.

"Okay. You know how I dislike the Spider?" Natasha snorted.

"I guess you could say that. But, more like, despise. Notice how you don't even call him by name?" The assassin snickered.

"Fine. That." Tony pouted. "Well, he gave me a speech on how he is not a villain. And _I guess_ he is right. So… I let him help. Just this once. But as soon as we are over this really awkward conversation I am going back to disliking him for endangering Peter and calling him to demand answers as to why he was so sure it wasn't Peter who was kidnapped. And also maybe checking on Peter to see if accidentally got hurt by something else, because that means Spider-man owes me a potato peeler."

While the end of the speech didn't seem to make any sense to her, Natasha was worried by the rest. It didn't sound like Tony had learned is lesson just yet.

Her musings were interrupted by the ringing of her phone. She reached for it, quickly glancing at the caller id. It was Spider-Man's number.

"Before you speak, I need your help. Also please don't kill me." Said a voice on the other end of the line. _Peter's_ voice. Natasha raised her green chai latte to her lips and took a long sip with a completely blank face. Tony was making wild gestures and shooting her questioning looks.

"I'm listening." Natasha replied calmly after placing her (Hulk-themed) mug back on the coffee table.

"Okay, so now you know I'm Spider-Man… and Natasha, I am _so_ sorry for not telling you!" Natasha understood, really. Though she wasn't sure why Peter would call her and tell her now.

"Yes. We will talk about that later. But I believe you had a reason for calling me and it was urgent." She shot a sharp glance at Tony who was by now, practically bouncing in his seat with curiosity.

"Yes!" The little Spider continued. "You know how I gave you my phone to put in your number and you tracked my phone and figured out mine?"

"Yes." Natasha tried to urge him to continue when he stopped.

"Well, I have a Spidey phone. I _swear_ I do. It's just that the battery was flat, and I didn't want to go out without one, and… and I accidentally gave you my Peter phone then told you to give that number to _Tony Stark._ "Peter sounded like he was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Calm down." Natasha tried to use her most soothing voice. "I will take care of him. You don't have to worry. You should be worrying about talk we will be having instead." She gave the phone an evil smirk, even though Peter couldn't see it.

Tony could and he was getting more curious by the minute.

"See you tomorrow." Natasha finished and ended the call.

"So? Who was it?" Tony asked.

"Peter." Natasha answered honestly. Tony looked mildly jealous at that. "He asked about the tapeworm. I told him I would be using Brutus today. He was also worried about the battery life." She continued in a smooth lie.

"He talks to you behind my back?" Tony asked, appalled.

"Yep! And don't even think about forbidding him, because that way you will never get Spidey's _real_ number!" She gave him a smug grin.

"What did you _do_?!" Tony demanded. "JARVIS, cross reference that number with all of my contacts!"

"Match found, sir. That number belongs to Peter Benjamin Parker." Tony glared at Natasha.

"That was a very bad joke." He declared with narrowed eyes.

"I thought it was funny." Natasha grinned.

She finished her green chai latte in one gulp, then left a fuming Tony to plan her talk with a certain Spider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To cover up my major mistake, I made Peter make a minor mistake. Sorry!


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony makes a phonecall.

It wasn’t that Tony hated Spider-man. But Peter was so smart, and Spider-man was using the tech he made, exclusively, it seemed, and Tony couldn’t help but be reminded of geese and golden eggs and Obie. But he did try not to be unfair with the vigilante. Which is why he was making him a new, safer better suit. And also because maybe, just maybe he would finally leave Peter alone if he could get what he wanted from another source.

The suit was, of course, going to be a work of art. More so, because Tony was going to have Peter work on it. Now one might say that Tony was the same as Spider-man for using Peter, but that was obviously bullshit. Tony was paying him a fair wage, didn’t keep him overtime, gave him more than enough days off (which Peter seemed reluctant to make use of, Tony had to tell him to take a day off the last time around it happened) and he would make sure all of Peter’s ideas got copyrighted and belonged to the kid. He could have easily drawn up a contract where everything Peter came up with during his internship belonged to SI, and it would still have been a good deal for Peter with the money he got payed and how good it would look on his cv in the future, but, again, too close to Obie.

Then there was the kidnapping. Yes, Tony had assumed it was largely thanks to Spider-man, and it seemed less and less likely as more things came to light (like how Pepper’s intern got kidnapped instead of Peter), but, to be fair, he had had no reason to suspect Peter was in danger. Pepper only got kidnapped once and she was his girlfriend. Being close to him was not such a big danger. Plus the Black Widow hung around that kid like a big overprotective mama-spider, how was Tony supposed to know she would decide to take the day off? Well, he knew better now. On his workbench lay a shiny new smartwatch that would track the kid’s whereabout’s and physical wellbeing as long as he didn’t take it off. (Next to it lay another, much less shiny version, because if Pepper’s intern, the one who actually got kidnapped, didn’t get one, he would never hear the end of it from Pepper.) And beyond them, on another workbench, the half-finished Spider-suit.

That was the main reason he wanted to talk to Spidey. (Okay, and to shout at him more, because it made him feel a little better, even though it probably accomplished nothing.) But Natasha didn’t give him his actual number (and she wouldn’t give it to him, because she thought he would keep her away from the kid, which was not _entirely_ unfounded), and Tony was not about to admit to the real reason why he needed it. Which left him with only one option.

He dialled and pressed call.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter picked up. He sounded nervous. “Hi-i. Why… are you calling me?”

“”Hi, Peter. How is your day off? I need Spider-man’s number.” He declared.

“No.” Peter said, suddenly not nervous at all. “Leave him alone. He doesn’t need you shouting at him again.”

“I… that’s not why.” Tony admitted with a sigh.

“Why, then?” Peter asked suspiciously. Tony had to admit that the kid had a reason to be, he hadn’t ben all that understanding with the vigilante.

But this, this was the difficult part. He had to admit to Spider-man that he wasn’t completely right, and went a little overboard in is protectiveness, and that was bad enough in itself. But in order to do so, he had to tell Peter all of this, and then Peter would want to be able to contact Spider-man again, and Tony was not _that_ sorry. But he had no choice. So grand gesture it was.

“It’s about his equipment. I’m working on a new suit, and I need his input. Yours too, by the way. Do you think the two of you can arrange to come around at the same time at some point and we can complete it together?” Tony felt like he was begging and he didn’t like it. But it was as close to an apology as he was ever going to get, and he needed Peter’s cooperation for that.

There was a long stretch of silence from the other end of the line. Tony almost thought the line had broken when Peter finally spoke.

“Does that mean I can actually talk to him?” He asked hesitantly. He didn’t sound as thrilled as Tony thought he would. The genius tried to shut down the part of his brain that began to scream at him that this was extremely suspicious, and that he should look into it. Maybe Peter just didn’t believe him yet.

“Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying. Call him, tell him to swing by, come by at the same time, text me when.” That way, at least, he could observe their interactions in a controlled environment. Originally he had only planned to call Spidey, ask for his input, take notes, and incorporate them with Peter, without the vigilante present. But When Natasha gave him the wrong number, and Peter became his only means of getting it, He reevaluated that plan. This way, Peter would maybe appreciate the gesture, and he could keep an eye on Spider-man.

Well, in any case, there was no backing out now. He doubted Spider-man would say no.

“Alright. I will talk to him.” Peter agreed. “And Mr Stark… Thank you. For giving him a chance.” Tony smiled to himself at Peter’s words. The kid couldn’t help but see the good in Tony’s intentions, even when they were a bit more complex and less altruistic than he liked to admit out loud. Which is exactly why he needed to protect Peter from everything bad in this world.

“No problem kid. See you whenever.”

“By Mr. Stark.” The call ended.

Well, that was exhausting, and Tony needed either another hot chocolate or something a lot stronger, and as it had previously been established, they didn’t have any cocoa powder. And he wasn’t drinking anymore. Pepper always got sad when he did, and he hated seeing her sad, so that was out. He reached for his coat and sunglasses, then took the elevator to the Avengers common floor. The rest of the team were lounging on the sofas, debating what to watch.

“Anyone interested in going out for a hot chocolate?” He asked the room at large. Thor immediately grinned and nodded. He seemed exhausted, probably babysitting teenagers didn’t do him much good. Natasha jumped at the opportunity as well, muttering about how it better not be green this time. The rest of the team got up to join them as well.

Once they were settled in around the largest table of a nearby coffeeshop, sipping various hot beverages, Tony turned to the Norse god.

“So, Point Break, how was the babysitting?” Thor’s pouted at the memory.

“You have spoken of this ‘intern’ of yours fondly, yes?” He began. “I believed all midgardians of his age to be as mature as you painted him.” He looked disappointed.

“Nope! Pete’s one of a kind!” Tony grinned proudly. “But seriously, what did he do?”

“He would not stop talking about the man of Spiders. He has labeled himself as his ‘biggest fan’ in his own words. I admit that the man of Spiders has many remarkable qualities, but young Flash’s praises seemed a bit extensive, especially so, traveling by the might of Mjolnir.”

“Ah. He is jealous.” Clint nodded, understanding.

“You are saying that like you weren’t when he first began fanboying over him.” Steve gave him a look.

“Yes. But I’m over it now because this is way funnier.” He sniffed. Natasha rolled her eyes. They relaxed in comfortable silence for a little while. Then Tony jumped up.

“Hey, guys! Has anyone told Pepper that we found her intern?” Several pairs of panicked eyes looked back at him.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter is screwed.

Peter had messed up really bad this time. He told Ned as much.

“Yes.” Ned agreed, not without sympathy. “You did.”

“What am I gonna do? I can’t be at two places at once, and I can’t not go, because then he will kill Spidey, which s bad because that’s _me_ , or worse, _skin me with a potato peeler!_ ” He ranted. “Ned, this is serious!”

“Well, why don’t you, like, make a robot Peter who can go with you and he won’t notice anything?” Ned suggested, relaxing into the chair he was occupying like he just solved all the problems in the world.

“Do you think I hadn’t thought of that? It would take ages, and he would come for me before that!” Peter retorted, panicked. He was sitting on a tabletop, his legs swinging. He was wildly gesticulating.

“Seriously?” Came MJ’s voice from the back of the classroom, which was awkward because they had thought they were alone. “Just get somebody else to dress up as Spidey and be done with it.”

“Man, she is right.” Ned agreed in awe. “Why hadn’t we thought of that?” Peter sighed.

“I have. But I don’t have anyone to ask. Besides you Ned, and, no offence, but we don’t exactly have the same body type.”

“Flash does. Just saying.” MJ muttered.

“Yeah right.” Peter protested. “Because our relationship is totally at a place where I would ask him that.”

“I’m not saying Peter Parker should ask him. I’m saying Spider-man should. He is a fan, you know.” She finally looked up from her book.

“Peter, I think she might be onto something.” Ned kept looking between the two of them.

“And what do I tell him, why can’t Spider-man go?” Peter asked, arms crossed.

“Dunno. Supersecret mission, whatever.” MJ shrugged.

“Like he is gonna buy that!” Peter disagreed.

“Well do you have a spare costume?” She asked.

“I do, why?” Peter furrowed his brows suspiciously.

“Gimme. I’ll sit on a rooftop and eat burritos in it, or whatever it is you do in your free time. That way Flash has proof that you are busy doing other stuff.”

“No way!” Ned protested. “What if one of the Avengers saw you? Or pictures for on the internet? Or in the news? That would be an even bigger mess.”

“Fine, whatever.” She looked back at her book. “I was just offering.”

“As much as I hate this plan, my options are limited here.” Peter sighed. “It’s that or asking Natasha for help _again_ , and I already owe her far too much.” Peter resigned himself to a very awkward conversation where he would have to bargain with Flash Thompson in his flimsy Spider-man costume to convince the other teen to wear said flimsy superhero costume, face Iron Man, and lie to him, and all he had to arm himself with was a flimsy excuse of a mission that didn’t exist.

He could have just told Mr Stark the truth. Then he remembered the potato peeler. Last time when May was using it for its intended purpose, Peter wandered into the kitchen to get a glass of water, all it took was one glance at the object and he paled. Fortunately, May hadn’t seen.

Well, to be honest, Peter didn’t really get why Mr Stark was so hung up on this whole thing.

It was like that Stark Expo again. Peter had spent months back then perfecting his seemingly mass-produced fake Iron Man gauntlets, until they were able to give off a decent EM pulse, enough to decommission any electronic device in a five meter radius. Which means that when Peter faced down an evil robot at the expo, arm raised to fire, he was fully prepared to succeed. And he would have, if not for Iron Man landing in front of him, effectively stopping Peter from using his tech, unless he wanted to fry his hero as well. Then Mr Stark took out the robot himself. Then he congratulated Peter like he had just done that, and that had been the most humiliating experience of Peter’s short life, including the time when he tripped and torn his teacher’s skirt.

He had been angry about that condescension in his hero’s voice for months, until Ben explained to him that Mr Stark couldn’t have known that Peter wouldn’t have died, most children were a lot less intelligent that Peter, and the billionaire had just extrapolated from that.

Peter got that now, he was fine with that.

But unlike back then, with this whole Spider-Man business, Mr Stark _knew_ that Peter wasn’t stupid, why couldn’t the man just let him make his own decisions? So what if Peter’s prefrontal cortex hasn’t finished developing yet? Sure, that meant Peter’s logical reasoning skills weren’t fully developed, but he didn’t think he had the wrong conclusions. Helping people, or helping someone help people couldn’t be the wrong thing to do, right?

Peter didn’t think he would change his mind about that, even when he stopped growing. And it didn’t seem like Mr Stark disagreed with that sentiment either, so what difference did it make if an adult with a fully developed prefrontal cortex got hurt, or Peter did?

Well, there was not much he could do now but avoid getting flayed, and he just seemed to dig himself deeper and deeper.

He still owed Natasha a long conversation, his boss a meeting with a Peter and a Spider-Man, the latter of which looked more and more like it was going to be Flash, and he probably owed Mr Stark (and the rest of the Avengers) the truth, but he was nowhere near ready for _that_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait! (I've been busy with school stuff and also fighting akrasia, if anyone has any tips, please share.)


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Best day of Flash's life...not.

It turned out that being hit on the head repeatedly then being taken home via flying magic hammer didn’t do good for one’s health, and so Flash was now suffering from a surprisingly mild concussion. It meant that he was lucky enough not to have thrown up on Thor, (other than the really long word-vomit about Spider-Man, which was quite embarrassing, thinking back). It also meant that he had a really painful headache though, and his mom had already let the school and SI know that he would be absent the next day.

She had only freaked out a little when an actual norse god knocked on her door to return her son who had been kidnapped. By contrast, Pepper Potts had freaked out a lot when she learned that her intern had been kidnapped and rescued without her knowledge because her superhero boyfriend forgot to mention any of it. Flash didn’t like Stark, but probably even he didn’t deserve what he was going to get from Ms. Potts.

All in all, though, Flash didn’t consider the whole day a total failure. Sure, he was kidnapped, hit on the head, and, worst of all, mistaken for _Parker_ of all people, but none of that could compare to the fact that he was rescued by his absolute favourite superhero.

Which is why he also didn’t mind when his headache intensified when someone knocked on his second-floor window loudly. Because it was Spider-Man. Flash hurried to open the window for him.

“Hi.” Said the superhero once inside the building. “How are you?” Flash almost melted, because Spider-Man did not only rescue him, he also came to check up on him afterward! How _amazing_ was that?

“Mostly fine. I have a concussion. Really mild though. Thank you so much for saving me by the way!” He gushed.

“Uh, that was mostly the Avengers.” Spidey deflected, embarrassed. “Anyway, I’m glad to hear that you are .. mostly fine. I am really sorry about what happened.”

“Aw, don’t worry about it.” Flash couldn’t help but smile widely. “It’s so nice of you that you came to see me.”

“That’s… uh, that’s actually not why I’m here. I need to ask you a favour.” That was literally the coolest thing that ever happened to Flash. He could actually help Spidey!

“Of course! Anything! I mean you just saved my life after all!”

“Uh, I really didn’t.” Spidey mumbled, but Flash ignored it.

“What can I do for you?” Spidey, if possible, seemed even more embarrassed now.

“There is this thing. An appointment. That I can’t go to because I have a really important super secret mission I have to do. And, I was thinking, you have the same general shape as me, height, weight etc… could you maybe pretend to be me for a bit?” Flash was wrong. This was not the best day of his life, the day he would actually get to _be_ Spidey would be.

“Yes!” He exclaimed immediately and loudly. “OMG yes! This is so awesome! I’m so glad you chose me!” Spidey seemed shocked for some reason, like this wasn’t at all the answer he had expected.

“Wow. Okay. That was easy. Thank you.” He said. “So here is what I need you to do…”

The next day Flash found himself right at the entrance of Stark Tower, that was, once agin, inhabited by Stark Industries Research and Development. For the most part of the past week, the Iron Legion had constantly been working on repairs. Using them not only meant that the construction could be going on day and night, they also worked pretty efficiently around the equipment still in the building, it din’t need to be moved out then back in.

While the Tower still lacked an Arc Reactor, and was running off of the power grid, it was once again functioning and work had resumed as usual.

As Flash walked through the entrance wearing the spare Spider-Man suit that the superhero had given him, it occurred to Flash that this might not have been the method the _real_ superhero used to enter the building. Nevertheless, he feigned confidence, walked past the receptionist, nodding politely towards her, and entered the elevator.

Which was already occupied by Parker. Just his luck. But then it occurred to him, he wasn’t Flash Thompson now. He was somebody _famous._ He could use that to his advantage.

“Hey, intern! That’s what you are, right? An intern?” He pretended to not know. Parker nodded.

“Fetch me a cappuccino, will you?” Parker looked at him bewildered. Like he was shocked that someone dared to ask him to actually do something. Stark was clearly already a bad influence on him. Then he snapped back to reality. He pressed the closest level button on the elevator, and it stopped.

“I will be right back.” Parker said and took off towards the end of the corridor. Flash felt kind of silly standing in the open elevator, waiting for Parker to get back, so he stepped through the door as well.

“Hi Flash. Why are you dressed like Spider-Man?” Asked a very familiar voice next to his ear. _Shit!_ He was in so much trouble!

“Hi, Black Widow. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tried. She shot him an unamused glare.

“Fine, but, in my defence, he knows, I’m not impersonating him for fun, he asked me to do it!” Flash blurted out. No-one could have stood that gaze, okay?

“Did he, now?” She asked in a deceptively calm tone, but Flash felt like not all of her anger was directed at him. Flash nodded and hoped she wouldn’t decide to kill him.

“And you _agreed?”_ By the last word, all the false calm evaporated from her tone. “Are you out of your mind? Oh, and by the way, is _he?_ ” Flash looked back at her, uncomprehending. He rally didn’t get what the big deal was. He didn’t even have to do anything Spidery, he just needed to meat with Stark, try on a new suit, then leave. That was it.

“Flash, I know you are not this stupid, and that you follow anything and everything about Spider-Man. You should _know_ that him and Stark don’t get along. Stark, who is, by the way, another superhero, and doesn’t know he should hold back against you because _you_ are not one! _You could have been killed!”_ Despite the anger evidently radiating off of her, she never once raised her voice. And Flash realised that she was completely right. He was an idiot, and she taught him better. But he got caught ip in the fact that _the_ Spider-Man needed his help, and didn’t think through the consequences.

“I’m sorry, Natasha. Please don’t tell Ms. Potts, she would be disappointed.” He lowered his gaze. “It must be the concussion that is making me make all these stupid decisions.”

“You have a _concussion?”_ That was Parker. He has just turned around the corner, and he was looking at Flash with big, brown and guilty eyes. Flash didn’t get what he had to be guilty about anyway, it’s not like he caused the concussion.

“Parker!” Natasha hissed. “First, you tell Tony that Spider-Man couldn’t make it today while I take Flash home, then we _talk.”_ She seemed about as angry with the boy as he seemed to be feeling guilty.

None of it seemed to make any sense to Flash, and his head was beginning to throb really painfully. Then his gaze traveled to Parker’s hands.

“Huh. You _actually brought me coffee.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am soo sorry for the long wait, but I am back now, so that's good I guess? (I still have two exams left, so not completely, but I intend to try harder.)  
> Anyway, I really want to improve my drawing, so I decided to take prompts (are they called that when they are for pictures and not stories?) over at DeviantArt. Same name, same profile picture. If you have any ideas for me, come and find me there (or leave them here in the comments). I make no promises about deadlines, but I want to try at least.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony has cameras but apparently only in the elevator, so...

Spider-Man waltzed into Stark Tower through the front doors like the arrogant little prick he was, talked down to Peter like the teenager wasn’t the one doing _him_ all the favours, and ordered him around. Tony was _furious._ He would have reached through the security footage to throttle the little idiot, if he could have. Unfortunately, ha had to wait for them to reach his workshop with that.

Except that minutes have passed, and none of the two reentered the elevator, and he was starting to get worried when Peter reappeared. He kept fidgeting all the way up to Tony’s lab, and when he finally entered, he looked really distraught.

Tony gave up on pretending to work and rushed towards the boy as soon as he appeared in the doorway. If that damned vigilante did more than order Peter around, he was not going to walk away from his next encounter with Iron Man.

“Hey Pete. Everything okay?” Tony began faux-casually.

“Uh, no, actually.” Peter stuttered.

“Is it Spider-Man? Do I need to kill him? I will anyway, just so you know, only _I_ get to order you around like that.” Peter seemed even more distressed, even despite Ton’s attempt at levity.

“No-no… Mr Stark, that was, uh, that was my fault. That was not really him, I mean Spider-Man.” Tony’s thoughts halted at that. With the almost crying Peter in his lab and the mysteriously disappearing Spider, _this_ was definitely not the explanation he was expecting.

“What do you mean? Then who was it?” He demanded perhaps a bit forcefully, while he steered Peter towards his chair and leaned against the workbench next to it with his arms crossed.

“…Flash. Spidey is not coming. I made a huge mistake. I asked him to come, and did you know he had a concussion…? I mean Flash. And anyway it’s all my fault for not telling you from the beginning.” Peter wasn’t just close to tears now, his big brown doe eyes were swimming with them, and he was fiddling with the hem of his graphic tee nervously.

Tony was confused, but also really really worried because Peter seemed a lot like he was blaming himself for something he shouldn’t have. Again.

Also Tony’s position might have been a little too threatening, so he pulled over another stool and sat so that he would be on eye level with Peter.

“Pete…Pete! Look at me. Whatever this is, it’s not your fault, and even if I’m wrong, and it is, we can fix it, okay? Now, do I understand correctly that you asked Flash to impersonate Spider-Man? Why?”

“You told me to bring Spidey, and you were so _nice,_ I couldn’t just say no, but then the Spider-Man thing, and he, I couldn’t, so MJ said maybe Flash, so I asked him and he said yes, and I know it was a stupid idea, but I just didn’t know what to do, but then he said he had a concussion, and I …”

“Peter, slow down. It’s alright, whatever it is, I won’t get mad. Just tell me what happened and we will fix it. Okay?” Peter looked at him with such hopeful eyes.

“Promise?” He asked, and Tony probably couldn’t have said no even if he wanted to. So he just ruffled Peter’s hair and nodded.

“I’m Spider-Man.”

“Wait, what?” Was Tony’s immediate verbal response, even while his brain had already begun processing and integrating the information. Because this made so much sense. Peter’s vehement defence of the vigilante,Spidey’s casual disregard for Peter’s safety, because if it was his own safety instead of an innocent bystander’s, then this was just the typical lack of self-preservation instinct all superheroes shared, the confidence Spidey showed that Peter could not possibly have been kidnapped…

 _Shit!_ And he was the asshole who _threatened_ Peter, grabbed him around the neck, considered _hurting him_. This was really really bad. Also what was Peter doing risking his life in that flimsy excuse of a suit? That wouldn’t keep him safe. That wouldn’t even stop a bullet! Speaking of bullets…

Tony pulled up the schematics of the spider suit and added an extra layer of protection or three against physical attacks with his right hand while he used his left to add Peter’s measurements to the design.

Maybe he could add a parachute, a heating system, oh, and some taser webs? And something against chemical and biological attacks, and he would have to prioritise his magic related experiments, he couldn’t have any of _that_ nonsense hurt Peter…

Right. Peter was still in the room. Right next to him. And he hadn’t reacted yet.

When he turned back to Peter, the teenager’s eyes were suspiciously red and puffy, and he was looking at Tony fearfully.

“Shhh, it’s okay, Pete. I’m not mad. I promised, didn’t I?” Speaking of mad, why _wasn’t_ he mad? Aside from the obvious, that is, because how could he possibly feel anything beside the overpowering _panic_ at the thought of Peter facing those criminals _with guns_ out there _in glorified pyjamas?_

He hated lying, of course, but he understood where Peter was coming from. He had the exact same reasons for _not_ asking about Spider-Man’s identity. Hell, he himself blamed Spidey when he had thought he revealed his connection to Peter. So that was one reason.

The other was probably simply that it was _Peter_. The kid who had bypassed SI security to do science with his role model at the age of …ten? (Tony was not good with guessing ages, especially those of children.) Tony was really fond of the kid, and while he would have been pissed if it had turned out that it was… say, Flash Thompson under the mask, he would have been _pissed,_ now he just wanted to wrap Peter in bubble wrap, who was he kidding, that was obviously not safe enough, try the new and improved spider suit, and make sure nothing would actually harm him.

Also, did he mention? His tiny fifteen year old intern turned out to be a Crime Fighting Spider. Forgive him if he was in _shock._

Peter though, he couldn’t know what was going on in Tony’s head, and so he was still looking doubtful. Tony gave him a reassuring smile.

“Okay, you want proof? I’ll give you proof. _Spider-Man’s AI_ , say hi to Peter, AKA Spider-Man, AKA your new… I don’t know, employer?”

“Hi Peter.” Said the feminine voice of the AI dutifully.

“She doesn’t have a name yet.” Tony explained. “I thought I’d let you choose since Rhodey wasn’t too thrilled about ‘FRIDAY’.” Truth be told, the choice was only taken out of Rhodey’s hands because FRIDAY was originally not meant to be his AI, she was meant to be a backup for JARVIS in case anything happened, but after a really big scare Tony decided to make offline copies of J just in case and gave FRIDAY to Rhodey. It served the dual purpose of his little girl having other influences than him and Pepper; and Warmachine and subsequently the Airforce not having such a direct link to JARVIS. Which is why he decided to create Spidey a new AI too.

“Wow.” Came the awe filled whisper from Peter. “Can I call you Michelle? No, wait, that’s weird, how do you feel about Karen?” He asked, excited.

“Karen.” Repeated the AI. “I like it. Thank you.” _Aw,_ she was just as polite as Peter, they would _suit_ each other perfectly. Pun intended, because he was Tony Stark and he could do whatever he wanted.

“So, kid.” Tony pulled Peter’s attention back on himself. “I’m not saying I’m not freaked out by this, because I totally am. But if there was anything I could say to stop you from risking your life, Nat would have said it. So we will just skip the part where I try and stop you from doing this and you get really hurt because I did and I realise the error of my ways, and jump to the part where I do my best to keep you alive.” Peter looked at him incredulously.

“Don’t give me that look, it’s obvious she knows, she has been an overprotective mama spider ever since that mission the two of you went on together.”

“What I’m saying is” Tony continued “that I’m not going to stop you but there will be upgrades. I am making that suit” he pointed at the hologram still hanging behind him “the safest thing to fight crime in, and you will wear it. You will also _ask for help_ when you need it, and not just from your nerd high school friends. It’s great that you have them, don’t get me wrong. But we, the Avengers, are also here for you. Like how you worked with Nat, that was good. More of that.” He ticked the rules off on his fingers. “ _Don’t_ disable the tracker, it’s there for your own safety. We won’t stop you from doing anything, but if it’s too dangerous, there will always be someone available to help. There is no shame in that, and if you think about being too proud, I’ll have Capsicle tell you why that’s a very bad idea in his most Captain America voice. With me so far?” Peter nodded.

“Okay. Last but not least: mission reports. We all do them, and they suck, but it’s very useful to keep an archive. You never know when someone is actually attacking you out of revenge for a family member you put in jail unless you have records. Karen will probably do them for you if you don’t want to, if you ask her nicely.” He finished.

“I would be happy to, Peter.” The AI confirmed.

“I think that’s it. I’ll let you know if I can think of anything else. Just” Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly “ _please_ stay safe. Okay? Sorry about the monologuing.”

“It’s… okay, Mr. Stark. Thank you so much, and I’m really sorry I haven’t told you earlier, but I was _so_ scared, and used to keeping it a secret, then you came to the wrong conclusion after the tower incident, and that was so convenient, but then Nat figured out, then… “Tony only now noticed how silent Peter had been up until now, when his usual word-vomit surfaced again. “I guess what I’m saying is that I’m really sorry for not telling you, and thank you so much for understanding.”

“It’s okay, Pete.” Tony smiled at the kid. “I’m still in shock, so there probably will be an appropriate emotional response at some point, so don’t thank me just yet. But, what can I say, what kind of superhero mentor would I be if I didn’t give you a really expensive suit with an AI and taser webs?”

“Taser webs? Aw, my Little Spider is growing up so fast.” Natasha drawled from somewhere behind Tony’s back. Tony shrieked and fell off his stool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So at this point I think it's fairly obvious that it is in no way MCU-compliant, but I thought I should say so just in case. I'm trying to explain some of those changes in-world.  
> I'm also thinking of making it a single-point departure kind of AU, to make it at least MCU-adjacent, if you have seen Endgame (and who am I kidding, at this point you probably have) you might have an idea as to what that point might be. Still not sure though. Let me know what you think and if you have a firm opinion on that.  
> Anyways, thank you for reading, and I hope you liked it.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath.

“Aw, my Little Spider is growing up so fast.” Natasha drawled from somewhere behind Tony’s back. Tony shrieked and fell off his stool.

Natasha giggled, but only internally, because she had a super scary super spy image to uphold. Instead, she turned to Peter.

“I was going to be mad at you but then you did the right thing that I would never have done. Normally that would mean me being proud of you but with the earlier stunt with Flash they cancel each other out.” Peter looked sheepish. “Also, what he said. Ask for help. Stay safe.  _Call me, beep me if you wanna reach me._ ” Natasha delivered in her best deadpan tone. She carefully hid a grin as Tony almost fell off his stool again that he had just managed to clamber back onto. “Yes, I know, my red hair makes it very convenient for me to use that particular reference in my pop culture battle with Clint. JARVIS, you’re keeping score, right?”

“Yes, Miss Romanoff.” The AI confirmed. 

“JARVIS, make that Nat’s ringtone on Peter’s phone please. This is _hilarious.”_ Tony declared. “Wait, does that make Barton Ron Stopable or the naked mole rat? ‘Cause I’m not really sure.” He added after a pause. 

“Hulk is the naked mole rat, because he is the actually useful one, duh. And you are Wade the tech guy.” Natasha answered calmly, while keeping an eye on Peter to see if the easy banter was helping him relax. It obviously did that for Tony, that was the genius’ go-to relaxation technique, but it seemed to be working on Peter too. 

“I refuse to take that as an insult.” Tony decided. 

“Guys? I heard you talk about the other guy, is everything okay?” Bruce’s head appeared in the doorway. 

“Do you mean _what’s the sitch’_?” Tony asked at the same time as Peter said:

“Wow you're Dr. Bruce Banner!” In an awe filled tone. 

“Erm, yes. Hi? Who are you?” Bruce turned his attention to Peter.

“That’s Peter, Tony’s intern.” Natasha introduced, shooting Bruce a warm smile.

“Your research into the effects of radiation on living tissue is unparalleled and that article about a low level gamma radiation on certain organic polymers was mind-blowing!” Peter gushed, and Tony pouted. 

“This is why I didn’t want to introduce them. Now Banner will seduce Peter with all those icky polymers of his and I can’t say no because _Peter likes that stuff._ ” He complained to Natasha.

“There there.” Said Natasha with a complete lack of compassion. 

“Wait, and you _understood_ that?” Bruce’s eyes went wide. “Tony wasn’t kidding when he said you were a genius.” Peter blushed a deep red at that. “He also said that you made Spidey’s webs. What do you say, would you like to help me with the stretchy pants project? We were trying to make something that is flexible enough that it doesn’t look like granny pants on me but can fit the Hulk, but Tony isn’t that much help with that stuff, he kept redrawing the plans and replacing stuff with metal.” Natasha marvelled at how far Bruce has come. A few years back he would have vehemently argued against being alone with a squishy vulnerable teenager, and now he suggested it himself. On the other hand, Tony probably would have trusted Bruce with Peter from day one. He seemed to believe in the other scientist more than he believed in himself. 

“ _Fiine._ ” Tony whined. “You can play with Peter, but only if you have him back here by five. And no convincing him to leave me for icky polymers!”

“I would never.” Peter reassured. 

“I know that. I’m telling him this because you would be sad if he tried and you had to say no.” Tony ruffled his hair. 

After Bruce and Peter left the lab, Natasha turned to Tony.

“Alright, what did you want to talk about?”

“What makes you think I wanted to talk to you?” Tony asked with a suspiciously innocent expression.

“Oh please. Like you would have freely given up Peter time otherwise.”

“Point.” Tony conceded. “Don’t worry, it’s not about your crush on Bruce.” Wow, seriously? Was Banner really the _only_ person who hadn’t noticed? Natasha was really trying to let him know.

“Didn’t think it was.” She replied coolly.

“Okay, tell me one thing.” Tony began calmly.”What the _hell_ is wrong with you? Because normal people don’t let children fight crime in pyjamas!” He all but snarled the last words. “I mean I know wejoke about the whole mama spider thing, and it’s cute and everything, but sometimes I think you are less suited to be a parent than me and that’s saying something! I mean, pointing him towards a warehouse full of criminals and letting him go in alone? _Are you out of your mind?_ ” 

Natasha wasn’t, okay? But she didn’t claim to be good at parenting either. Peter was cute and fluffy but also really competent in a fight, and reminded Natasha of a younger her. Which was the problem. Because Natasha at Peter’s age already knew how to kill a man blindfolded, tied to a chair, in her underwear in sixteen different ways. She never had a childhood and she wasn’t entirely sure what one was supposed to look like. She figured Peter would call for help if he needed any, which Peter was surprisingly good at doing actually, and that he could take care of himself otherwise. 

It wasn’t that Natasha couldn’t see what Tony’s problem was exactly, but she sort of saw it as the kind of situation where one parent puts the child to bed at nine and the other lets them stay up late and the child turns out pretty much alright no matter what. Tony was probably right _on paper_ but Natasha didn’t really see the harm. 

“First of all it was a factory building, and not _full of_ bad guys, there were only a couple. And second of all, you seem to forget that Peter is _Spider-Man_ all of a sudden. He has been doing it for over a year.” Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Fuck, don’t even remind me.” 

“ _And_ ” Natasha continued, “I can teach him some tricks if you finally let me. I have been trying to convince you since day one that you should.” She reminded him. Tony seemed torn. “It doesn’t have to be on internship time. If he is willing, we can do this while he is on patrol.” She placated. 

“It’s not that.” After an incredulous look from Natasha, Tony corrected. “Okay, not _only_ that. I’m just not sure I can trust you to know what’s safe for him during training.”

“Wow, Stark. That’s a low blow.” Natasha bristled. “You know what? You can put Clint or Steve on babysitting duty. Is that enough?” 

“Oh _hell_ no! His identity stays a secret. He told me, and that was a big step for him, I’m not going to share it without his permission.” The billionaire protested. 

“Fine. _In mask._ Or _you_ can babysit if you aren’t too busy.” A low blow for a low blow,because as much as Natasha knew Tony wanted to do just that, there was no way his busy schedule would allow for it. He already made time for Peter by sharing his less classified projects with him, so he could keep working even when the teenager was there.

“Fine.” Tony retorted. “But it has to be Captain Righteous, because you know very well that Pepper would kill me if I spent any less time on SI things, and I don’t trust Birdbrain with children either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in my defence, I was in hospital for two weeks (it's a chronic thing and I'm mostly functional even when I'm not well so it's fine, but still, as far as excuses go it's not that bad, I think), and as for the last week, I went to an animated film festival (so that's not really an excuse, more of an explanation). 
> 
> The bottom line is, sorry for the long wait, and watch Ruben Brandt if you have the time and access, because that movie is awesome.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile in Bruce's lab.

Peter followed Dr. Banner into the scientists’s lab hesitantly. The area was every bit as spacious and well lit as Mr. Starks, but a lot more organised. Instead of the odd bits and pieces of half-working technology on every flat surface, and the floating blue screens scattered around in the air, here there were test tubes filled with strange-coloured liquids, flasks over turned-off Bunsen burners and neatly organised stacks of papers. It seemed that Dr. Banner preferred the old fashioned solution to Mr. Stark’s high-tech ones when it came to note-taking and documentation.

Dr. Banner headed over to what appeared to be the main workbench, and picked up an open binder.

“So, Peter, wanna come take a look?” He asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose. Peter nodded and stepped closer to the scientist, who turned the binder towards him.

“This is what we have so far. The elasticity is not terrible, the durability could be better, but the main issue is…”

“That it’s purple.” Finished Peter then blushed immediately. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to interrupt. That just seemed like something that would bother you?” Dr. Banner sent Peter an amused glance.

“Well, not _me_ me, per se. The other guy.” Peter nodded, understanding.

“I can see why that might be a problem.” The issue with such complex polymers was that the first phase of the research was always pretty random. You threw a bunch of stuff together in different ratios that you knew usually had results similar to what you wanted, and about one time out of a thousand, you got lucky, and had something to go on. Then it was all about tweaking that one formula until you had the _exact_ results that you wanted.

The issue with Dr. Banner’s formula was that it had none of the features it was supposed to. The closest it got was _not terrible_. But Peter couldn’t exactly tell one of the most respected scientists in the field that he should start from scratch. He _could_ have offered the use of his own web formula, but that was way too sticky for this particular function.

Which left them with tweaking, and a lot of it. The purpleness seemed like the easiest of the problems to solve, so that’s where Peter began.

“How does he feel about black?” He asked. Dr. Banner hummed.

“Why? You got something?” Well, Peter wasn’t quite sure it wouldn’t blow up immediately, but the good news was that if it didn’t, it would be stable from then on.

“It might not work. If it’s a bad idea, it’s a spectacularly bad one.” Peter pointed out.

“Out with it then, I love a good explosion, and the whole lab is Hulk-proofed, so it’s not like we can do that much damage.” Peter side eyed the scientist dubiously. _Explosions_ didn’t sound Hulk-proofed. But if Dr. Banner said it was okay, who was he to argue?

“You know how, you said Mr Stark was insisting on the metal parts?” Now it was Dr. Banner’s turn to eye Peter dubiously. “We could get it to bond to zirconium. If we manage to stabilise it, it would solve the colour problem. Probably.” Peter explained. 

“Peter, the amount of energy we would need to make that happen is about half of the energy consumption of this building. And we would need to keep that up for atleast four minutes.” Peter realised dejectedly that the scientist was right. “I’m going to ask Tony to help.”

“Wait, what?” Peter asked, incredulous. “It might not even work! You are going to waste that much resources on something that might literally go down in flames?”

“Well, not without doing all the simulations we can first.” Dr. Banner shrugged. “But if they show positive results? Sure.” This right here was a very good reason why Peter might consider becoming rich. Normally he didn’t really care about money, but the idea of not having to consider the costs of a failed experiment was really appealing.

Meanwhile, Dr. Banner asked JARVIS to pull up a screen (it seems that they worked in Dr Banner’s lab too, after all) and began feeding in the data for the sims.

“Dr. Banner” JARVIS’ voice interrupted them. “There is an intruder on this floor. He seems to be headed to sir’s lab, and while I am sure he would claim to be perfectly equipped to protect himself and Ms Romanoff, I would feel better if you provided support.” Finished the AI’s politely distressed voice.

“On my way. Peter, stay here.” Dr Banner declared. Well, that was not very likely, when people were in actual danger.

“JARVIS, do you know who the intruder is and what he wants?” Peter asked.

“Indeed. It would seem that Mr Maximoff is here to extract revenge for the untimely demise of his sister approximately two years ago. He believes sir to be at least partially responsible.”

“Well, that’s not good.” Peter muttered. “Where is he now?” Instead of an answer, a 3D map appeared floating in the air in front of Peter.

“Thank you.” He said, because May raised him to be polite. “Wait, he has super-speed.” He blurted, when the dot marking Mr Maximoff’s position blinked out only to appear about ten meters further. “ _And_ he _wants_ us to know he is here. He could easily have entered the lab by now. I’m guessing he is faster than you can react, JARVIS.”

“Dr. Banner?” Peter dressed the scientist, who was busy shedding his lab coat. “ _Please_ don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not sure the Hulk would be a good idea in this situation.”

“Peter, the Hulk has gotten a lot better at controlling himself since the Battle of New York. He is not going to harm any bystanders.” Peter winced.

“That’s not what I meant. What if he harms Mr Maximoff? JARVIS, does he have a healing factor? Super-strength? Durability?”

“Not that Iknow of, Peter.” The AI replied. Peter let out a deep sigh.

“Okay. I have an idea. But we have to decide real quick because we have less than a minute before he passes this lab and enters Mr. Stark’s.” The red dot marking the intruder proceeded down on the corridor in slow paces peppered with fast jumps as. If to prove Peter’s point.

“What do you have in mind?” Dr Banner asked.

“Did Mr Stark ever tell you that I made Spidey’s webs?” Dr Banner let out an uncharacteristic snort.

“Yeah, he doesn’t shut up about you.” Peter’s eyes widened in shock. That seemed extreme. Later, no time.

“He is fast right? But not super-strong. And we want to stop him, not necessarily harm him. So- web-grenades. Or a web booby trap, if you prefer. If his movements trigger it, there is no way he can be fast enough to escape.” Peter explained in a rush.

“Sound like a plan. But how fast can you make such grenades?”Dr Banner asked. With a raised eyebrow. Peter glanced at the rapidly approaching dot on the map, then at his watch.

“35 seconds.” He declared, and immediately got to work, grabbing an Erlenmeyer flask and six different chemicals as he went.Lucky for him, he could make these webs half asleep. He quickly mixed five of the chemicals in the right order, then stepped out of the lab and spread them on the ground. The sixth one, he very gently placed in the middle of the floor, and he disappeared back into the lab.

The solution on the ground was a colourless, odourless liquid, it looked like someone had spilled some water. But, together with the missing ingredient, it would make the web formula. And as the web formula expanded if it had the chance, if Mr. Maximoff happened to move the flask it was in, and its contents spilled on the ground, he would be trapped.

“JARVIS, can you please bring up the security footage just outside the lab?” Peter asked, and the AI complied.

Peter and Dr Banner watched in morbid fascination as bulky silver haired guy confidently strolled down the corridor, slightly slipping on the liquid in front of the lab, and jostled the flask.

The effect was instantaneous. Fluffy white webs enveloped the guy in a cocoon. He trashed at a super-speed for a bit, then he gave up.

Dr Banner stared at Peter with wide eyes.

“That was _very_ impressive. Are you _sure_ you want to stay Tony’s intern?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The science is all fake. Don't try it at home.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter learns part of what happened in Sokovia.

Honestly, Tony barely left Peter alone with Bruce for ten minutes when he heard a crash from the direction of the other scientist’s lab. He rushed towards the source of the sound, Natasha in tow, and he was met with the sight of Pietro Maximoff neatly tied up in the kid’s webs. Seriously, all that was missing was a bow on top.

“Banner!” Tony barked. Two messy brown haired heads appeared at the door of Bruce’s lab. “What the hell? What was it? Ten minutes? Fifteen? I trust you with the kid and I find that you let him confront a HYDRA experiment? Seriously?”

“Relax, Tony, he is capable. He can take care of himself.” Bruce raised his hands in a placating manner.

“ _I_ know that. _You_ don’t know that, because _you_ have known him for all of TEN MINUTES!”

“No, Mr Stark, please don’t be mad at Dr Banner, he wanted to Hulk out but I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, even by accident. No offence, Dr Banner. So it’s all my fault.” Bruce muttered a _none taken_ in the background, while Tony turned to Peter.

“Aw, no, Pete, you did great, I’m really proud of you, kid. I just don’t like the thought of you facing dangerous people in a funny T-shirt.” Tony reassured. Seriously, Peter was awesome. And a not that vulnerable but still pretty damn vulnerable fifteen year old kid.

“Wow, do you really think my T-shirt is funny?” Peter asked, eyes lighting up.

“ _That_ ’s your takeaway?” Tony looked at him incredulously. The kid was wearing a light grey T with a comic strip style scene with a blackboard on it, one of the steps of proof on the blackboard being replaced with “then a miracle occurs”. Tony _did_ find it funny, but probably only because it reminded him of how in his MIT days, his professors had to remind him constantly to be more meticulous in the documentation of his thought process.

“I hate to interrupt,” Natasha interrupted “but we have a guest. Mr Maximoff, to what do we owe the pleasure?” The silver haired guy scowled.

“I needed to talk to you.” He spat out reluctantly.

“And why is that? Oh, and by the way, it was a really stupid idea to just walk in here. Only reason why the Hulk didn’t punch you is because Peter is a sweetheart. You should thank him.” Tony declared.

“Thank you, Peter.” Maximoff complied, to Tony’s shock. “I’m here because of ULTRON.”

“What’s ULTRON?” Peter asked, curious.

“A domain specific AI that I didn’t even fully develop.” Tony explained. “He was supposed to help people, then this kid from MIT, Charles Spencer seduced him with all his ideas about Effective Altruism. I didn’t really, mind, ULTRON was never really advanced in the first place. Nowadays he is doing even better than GiveWell at evaluating charities. More cost efficient too. I don’t see how this could be important, though.” Tony finished. ULTRON was about protecting Earth for a while, but when Spencer appeared, just back from the poverty stricken Sokovia, and declared that the Avengers were monsters for wasting resources on protecting a few people from targeted attacks instead of the much more cost efficient option of saving people from hunger and diseases, Tony threw his AI and a bunch of money at him to shut him up. Also the guy was right. But there was no reason he couldn’t do both. ULTRON adapted to his new role fairly quickly.

“Yes well, not everybody thinks an AI making decisions about charity is a good thing. Certain people are very concerned about all that money being sent exclusively to Africa.” Natasha pointed out.

Tony knew this. There were a lot of complaints about that, but the numbers didn’t lie. Saving a life in Africa was _much_ cheaper than saving one in the US.

“So what? You are here to tell me that my AI is ruining charity, that I shouldn’t put a price tag on a life and that I should take care of my own people first?” Tony frowned.

“No, _Stark_ , I’m here to tell you that your pet AI is being hacked and/or tricked, and financially supporting HYDRA on your dime.” He seethed.

“Well, _crap.”_ Tony blurted. He _liked_ the ULTRON project, and he liked Spencer, but if what Maximoff said was true, he had to, at least temporarily, stop the project.

“JARVIS said you hated Mr Stark.” Peter said with these huge, innocent eyes. Apparently Maximoff couldn’t really resist those eyes either, because he replied.

“Yes. He is part of the reason why my sister is dead. But HYDRA is a bigger part.”

“Okay, so what’s the story there? Because it still sounds kinda vague.” Peter pointed out.

“About a year ago we attacked a HYDRA base in Sokovia.” It was Natasha who answered. “This one and his sister were defending the place. At first, we only saw the sister. She killed one of us before we even saw her coming. Sam Wilson. He was never officially a member, he wasn’t even supposed to be there, he just tagged along. She tried to mind control him while he was flying. He fell.” Natasha was talking in an even tone, but the grief was evident on her face. The other three listened in silence. “She tried to get Tony. Whatever vision she gave him, he didn’t go down, he lashed out. She was hit and died on the spot. Which is why” Natasha looked intently at Maximoff “I’m curious to know why you are not pissed off at Tony.” Tony was curious too.

“HYDRA messed with her head to give her those powers. She was my sister so I followed her, but HYDRA was the worst decision of our lives. And we should have left _long_ before all that happened. _They_ are the real reason Wanda died.” Peter looked teary eyed and sympathetic.

“Fine, message delivered. ULTRON will be on pause until further notice.” Tony broke the moment. “Those webs will dissolve in what? Half an hour?” Tony looked questioningly at Peter. The kid nodded. “Are you staying for dinner now that you don’t want me dead?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, this is the T-shirt: https://www.computergear.com/miracletshirt.html  
> I own one. A couple of years ago it was distributed by the American Mathematical Society.   
> A lot hasn't happened in this chapter that was supposed to, but if the Avengers family dinner is actually happening, there is going to be an even more dialogue heavy chapter with a lot of it.  
> Effective Altruism is something that I think Tony would totally be into and Captain America very much against, so I decided to include it. Let me know what you think!


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family dinner, relationship drama.

The Avengers were _crazy._ Stark was perfectly fine with having dinner with a guy that he had thought to be out for his blood up until two hours ago, Banner cared more about getting Stark’s intern to work for him than the he cared about ex-HYDRA person in the room, and the Black Widow was _actually cutting said ex-HYDRA person free!_ Oh, and Stark’s intern had apparently decided to play high school science fair in the corridor instead of letting the Hulk take care of it, because he was worried for the ‘bad guy’. Not that Pietro wasn’t grateful. He sort of understood why the other three adults fawned over the kid so much.

Once done with cutting Pietro's hands free, the Black Widow turned to the kid.

“Peter, are you staying for dinner too?” The kid shot a questioning look towards the billionaire.

“I would love to, but I have to talk to May first.” He replied once Stark nodded at him.

“I’ll talk to her.” The Black Widow offered. Stark shrugged.

“Thanks, Natasha.” Peter beamed at him. By this time, both of Pietro’s hands were free, and he pulled out a pocket knife, and bent down to free his legs. Once the Widow made sure he was doing fine without her help, she stepped back and pulled out her phone. She soon disappeared around the corner, while dialling someone.

“So, Peter, did you have fun with Bruce?” Stark asked, and began leading the kid towards the elevator. Dr. Banner followed them, so Pietro decided to tag along too. Peter started explaining something excitedly that Pietro didn’t understand at all. He was actually proud of his English skills and they were considered quite good for an Eastern European, but he didn’t speak science.

The elevator took them to a spacious, well lit, minimalist but elegant common are sort of thing. The whole space was different shades of white, beige, brown and black, the walls were mostly glass, and all the lights had a naturally white sunlike glow. Instead of leading them further to a dining room or kitchen-like setting, Stark gestured at the couches and armchairs.

“Alright everyone, take a seat, since we got here first, we get to decide what we order. Any thoughts?”

“Indian?” Dr. Banner suggested.

“Actually, don’t you guys ever cook?” Peter asked curiously.

“Not if we expect anyone to eat it and not get sick.” The billionaire shrugged. “Aside from Thor’s pop-tart making skills and Natasha’s waffles of course, but none of those are dinner food.” He added as an afterthought. “Anyway, Bruce is only advocating for Indian because he is trying a vegetarian diet, if you’d prefer something else we can get it.”

“No-no, Indian is fine, thanks Mr Stark.” Peter agreed quickly. Pietro decided to look around while they were discussing food choices. This level of the tower seemed to contain the huge common are the others currently occupied with an awesome sound system, a huge screen, a bar, a surprisingly well stocked kitchen, bathrooms, and the last door Pietro could find led to the emergency staircase. Pietro amused himself for a while with organising the robot vacuum cleaners in a way where they would constantly bump into each other, but then he rejoined the others.

Thanks to his powers, he didn’t miss anything.

“Alright then. Orders?” Came Starks cheerful voice.

“A Daal Makhani for me please.” Dr Banner decided. Stark looked at the kid inquiringly, but he didn’t say anything.

“Kid, do you want me to choose for you?” Stark offered after an awkward pause. The kid nodded mutely.

“Great! So that’s a large chicken tikka masala for the kid with three naan with garlic butter and five samosa. And I’ll go with a chicken tikka masala too, but with rice. And I’ll get the shahi paneer for Pepper, she likes that. Maximoff?” He turned to Pietro.

“Whatever’s fine.” He shrugged. Pietro tuned him out as Stark began adding more and more dishes to their order for him and each of the missing Avengers members and watched as Banner walked to the couch, plopped down, and asked Stark’s AI to start some documentary on the screen.

Romanoff entered with Rogers in tow, the latter of whom shot Pietro a suspicious glance. Pietro raised his empty hands in a gesture of innocence. Not that he _couldn’t_ harm them empty handed, but probably not if he wanted to walk away afterwards.

The Black Widow walked over to the couch as well and took a seat very close to the scientist already on it.

Rogers greeted Stark and the kid, who seemed to be discussing science again, then he disappeared in the direction where Pietro left the vacuum cleaners. His superhearing probably picked up the crashes.

A vent right behind the Black Widow opened, and Pietro watched, amused, as Hawkeye tried to get the drop on her. She reached back with a casual movement, and flipped him over. He landed on the coffee table with a loud thump. All eyes in the room turned towards him, but once they realised what had happened, they turned back to their original activities like it was business as usual. It probably was.

Pepper Potts was next to arrive. The CEO clicked over to Stark on her high heels, kissed him on the cheek (he immediately kissed her on the lips to make up for the perceived slight), greeted Peter, and then she noticed Pietro. Stark’s AI must have informed the others of his presence, but not Ms. Potts, because she turned back to Stark with a raised eyebrow.

“Dinner guest?” She asked in a deceptively polite tone.

“Uh… Pep? Please don’t kill me for not telling you in advance! He is here because he came to tell us that ULTRON has been sending HYDRA money. If it turns out to be true then we have a lead on HYDRA, if it turns out to be false, I want him here. In any case, ULTRON is out of commission now.” The redhead looked more placated.

“Alright, Tony, just please try not to leave me out of the loop.” He hugged her around the waist at that, and she pressed a kiss to the side of his head.

Thor was the last to arrive. By that time, everyone was seated around a low coffee table on various couches. The Norse god looked distraught. He carelessly dropped his hammer next to the elevator, and dragged himself over to the others.

“The Lady Jane has ended our relationship.” He announced in the most heartbroken booming voice imaginable. “She says that ‘our lifestyles are incompatible’. She says that my duties as the Protector of the Realms gets in the way of our love.” He looked like a really really really big kicked, soaked and sad puppy. For a few seconds, nobody knew how to react, then it was, surprisingly, Romanoff who moved first. She walked over to the bar and grabbed a large bottle of murky looking liquid. She poured two shots, and took them over to the table.

“Asgardian ale?” She raised one of them towards the blond god. He took it without a word. Natasha grabbed the other, and they emptied them simultaneously.

The moment was broken by the delivery of their dinner. All of the Avengers seemed reluctant to get up and get it, but the kid got up, all bouncy and full of energy, and walked over to the elevator.

That was the exact moment that Thor’s sad blue eyes closed, he fell to one side and began snoring really loudly. Romanoff must have spiked his drink then. All but Pietro’s eyes were on the god, and so no-one but him saw as Peter carefully pushed Mjolnir to the side, so that the delivery person wouldn’t trip on it. He probably didn't really know what it was and how it work, or he just didn't think about it.

Pietro held back a snigger and said nothing. Let that be a surprise for the Avengers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the 'Peter is worthy' trope.  
> BTW I'm still open to POV suggestions.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girl talk.

MJ was sitting in front of Midtown High, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. She was waiting for Peter to leave, so she could watch him for a bit. She wasn’t a creepy stalker or anything, she just liked Peter, okay?

The thing was, Peter was _nice._ People weren’t usually nice to MJ. Not that MJ was particularly nice to them either, but still. Plus she was weird. Like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch, except in a far less cute way, and without the excuse of dead parents. Then again, Peter’s parents were there for an excuse, and Peter still managed to be nice to everyone, even MJ, and MJ insulted him and Ned on a regular basis.

The bottomline was, MJ liked Peter. And not just for his beautiful eyes and his cute smile and his seriously ripped body.

She was dragged from her thoughts when a woman sat down next to her on the staircase. MJ gave her a cursory look. It was the Black Widow in a very obvious disguise (she wore sunglasses and a dark brown wig).

“So” she began “Why are you stalking Peter?” MJ was freaking out internally, of course, because the Black Widow was questioning her, but she wasn’t about to show it.

“It’s not stalking. I just happen to like sitting here.” Even to her own ears it sounded like a flimsy excuse. “And anyway, you are here too. What’s up with that?”

“ _I_ am here to pick Peter up. He _knows_ I’m waiting for him.” MJ shrugged.

“It’s not like he would _mind_ exactly. I hang around him a lot and he has never sent me away.” She brushed her hair from her face, and it fell back immediately.

“Alright, out with it. Why do you dislike me so much?” Up until this point the Black Widow was looking straight ahead, but now she turned towards MJ. MJ gave her a startled look. She was admittedly terrible at not being painfully honest about anything and everything, but she thought she didn’t make her dislike for the spy obvious.

“It’s not you.” She sighed dejectedly. “It’s your image.” The Black Widow gave her a curious look.

“You are _the_ female superhero, you know? And you fight with a very visible cleavage, you lean into all the bullshit gender stereotypes, like how after every fight all the men on the team look run down and dirty but you look perfectly put together like it’s somehow a requirement. And you are a role model to a lot of little girls, and I think that this just, you know, sends the wrong message.” MJ finished her rant. She looked at the Black Widow sheepishly.

The Black Widow visibly hesitated before she opened her mouth to speak.

“I see your point. But, first of all, Stark is a bigger diva than me and he spends _way_ more time trying to look perfect than me. So does Thor.” MJ gave her a doubtful look. “It’s true.” She insisted. “And I think you are looking at it the wrong way. Looking good is not a requirement, it’s a _weapon_. If you can shape the way people look at you, you can shape their behaviour around you.” MJ gave her another doubtful look.

“I see why that might be the case in your line of work” she began slowly “but generally it just leaves those who don’t want to deal with all that worse off. Like with makeup. Once you start wearing makeup every day, people get used to that as your baseline, and whenever you are not wearing any, they ask if you are sick or something.”

“Well I will be the first to admit that wearing makeup can be addictive. But I think that with most people it’s more for their own sakes than everybody else.” The Black Widow shrugged.

“Sure, it’s helping them alleviate the huge tension between what they look like and what they think they are supposed to look like because of the media.” MJ frowned.

“I would argue that expertly applied makeup makes you look objectively better. Maybe they just like looking about 10% better.” The Black Widow pointed out. “Don’t you?”

“I hate it when the eyeshadow falls into my eyes, or when my mascara runs because of it.” MJ scowled.

“That’s it, I’m taking you shopping, clearly you have never tried quality products.” She stood up, pulled out her phone and fired off a quick text. “I just texted Peter, we can meet up with him later. Speaking of Peter…” she trailed off suggestively. MJ blushed.

They began walking, the Black Widow leading the way.

“I like him, okay?” She blurted out. She kept looking at her scrubbed up shoes as the walked.

“Then why don’t you ask him out?” MJ shot her a startled glance at that. “You hate gender stereotypes so much, and this is one where it tends to be harder for boys. Why don’t you show that you really mean equality and not just less male privilege, and take the first step?”

“I can’t! What if he thinks I’m pushy and weird?” The Black Widow was looking at her unimpressed.

“From what I’ve gathered you _are_ both of those things. Either he likes you anyway or he doesn’t, but would you seriously want to still date him then?” Okay, so she had a point. MJ kind of loved the thought of being able to give Peter flowers, and telling him how nice he looked, both because she wanted to kick stereotypes in the balls and because she plain and simple wanted to do those things for Peter.

“That is actually a very good point.” She nodded emphatically. “Do you think he would enjoy seeing an autopsy with me?” The Black Widow gave her an incredulous look.

“I cannot stress this enough, _no,_ I do _not_ think he would. Try something a little bit more romantic. Like the movies. He likes Star Wars.” Well, yes, she was correct again, but that was kind of Ned’s and Peter’s _thing._ She didn’t want to intrude on that.

“Hey, I know! There is this guy who collects interesting spiders, and he is giving a talk this Saturday!” MJ lit up. This was the perfect idea! Except then she looked over at the Black Widow and she was hiding a smile behind her palm like she said something unintentionally funny. “Oh, I _know.”_ She added. “I just didn’t know _you_ knew.”

“Well it does sound like a good plan.” The Black Widow nodded. “Just know that if you hurt him, you will probably have to face most of the Avengers.”

Well, MJ would never understand how her life got to the levels of weird where she got the shovel talk from an Avenger _before_ she went on her first date ever, but she decided to roll with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly expected a more proactive MJ in FFH. Oh well, there is always fanfiction.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May makes a couple of phonecalls.

“Mrs Parker, I mean May! Why are you calling me, is everything alright with Peter?” Came Ned’s voice from the phone. May ran her fingers through her hair.

“Yes, Ned, everything is fine. I’m calling you because of his birthday. Have you got any ideas what he might like? Because I’m completely clueless.” She pushed her glasses back up her nose. She got Peter a Star Wars lego set last year, and a bunch of online courses before that, but he didn’t seem to like either of them. He tried to pretend, of course, because he was sweet like that, but May was sure he couldn’t properly lie to save his life. (Turns out, he had already completed the lego set with Ned, and the corses were below his level.)

“Well there _is_ something he mentioned. He really wanted an arc reactor lego set. But…” May’s fingers worked fast on the keyboard.

“Ned. That’s not a thing. I just Googled it, it doesn’t exist.” May heard a sigh from the other end of the line too.

“Yes, I know, I’ve looked into it too. But you know Peter.”

“Yeah, I do.” May sighed as well. There was a few seconds of silence.

“Hey, May! I’ve got an idea! You know who _could_ make it a thing? _Tony Stark!”_ May contemplated for a bit. This was a huge favour to ask from a billionaire she barely knew, but she would bet that Stark had connections _everywhere._ He could probably talk to the company and make it a limited edition or something. The worst case scenario was that he would say no. It was worth a shot.

“I could ask him, I guess.” She hummed. “But I don’t think he will do it.”

“May, I think you seriously underestimate how much Mr Stark cares about Peter.” Ned insisted. May frowned.

“Should I be worried?”

“What? No, of course not! He is just mentoring Peter or something. Nothing dangerous… I think. Probably.” Well, _that_ sounded convincing. Well then. She would give Tony Stark a call.

“Alright, Ned, thank you. I’m gonna hang up now and call Stark.”

“Bye, May.”

May lowered the phone from her ear, frowned at the screen, then shrugged, and dialled the number Stark had given him. He picked up after three rings.

“Hi. Mrs Parker, right? Is everything okay with Peter?” Seriously, she was reevaluating her parenting choices if that was the first question anyone asked her when they picked up the phone.

“Yes, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. It’s about his birthday.” She explained.

“Really? When is it? Did I already manage to forget it? For some reason I thought it would be sometime in the summer?” I May didn’t know better she would say the billionaire sounded _panicked._

“No, no, you didn’t forget it, it’s the tenth of August. I just like getting a head start on presents.”

“Oh, well, in that case, how can I help you?” He sounded a lot calmer now.

“Well he would like an arc reactor lego set. And that’s not really a thing.” She started to explain. “I understand if you are busy and it’s a huge favour and everything…”

“Say no more! If that is what he wants, then that is what he shall get I have so many ideas…” The billionaire’s voice trailed off as he got further and further from the microphone. May waited for a bit, not daring to hang up.

“I am JARVIS, Sir has now begun to work on the arc reactor lego set, and therefore is unavailable to finish this call. Thank you for your call, Ms Parker. Is there anything you would like me to pass on to him?” Said a British voice.

“Can you thank him fro me? And thank you as well, JARVIS.” Wow this conversation got weird fast. Maybe all billionaire geniuses were a bit crazy. She just had to hope Peter would never get rich, to avoid that fate.

“Very well, Mrs Parker.” Said the AI and hung up.

About fifteen minutes later, when May way lounging on the couch, pleased with her solution to the birthday present problem, her phone rang.

“Hello, this is May Parker.” She said because it was an unknown number.

“I’m Pepper Potts, and I would like to know what you told Tony. He closed himself in his lab and he ordered about two trucks of legos.” Well, this was embarrassing. She didn’t mean to break Iron Man.

“I just asked if he could help with Peter’s birthday present. He would like an arc reactor lego set.” There was a pause.

“That” the CEO of Stark Industries began “was a very bad idea. He is going to build an actual arc reactor from legos or something. You shouldn’t have given him _ideas._ ” Ms Potts said in an even tone.

“What? But I just meant that maybe he knew someone at Lego and could give them the idea to make the set! I’m so sorry!” She apologised. Ms Potts let out a huge sigh.

“No, it’s okay. I will deal with it. Just, did you know that Lego’s website has a tool that lets you design your own set and they will make it for you?” May did _not_ know that.


End file.
